Discrete Mathematics 313 (2013) 733–741

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Discrete Mathematics
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/disc

Spectra of graphs obtained by a generalization of the join

graph operation
Domingos M. Cardoso a,∗ , Maria Aguieiras A. de Freitas b , Enide Andrade Martins a ,
María Robbiano c
a
Departamento de Matemática, Universidade de Aveiro, 3810-193 Aveiro, Portugal
b
Instituto de Matemática and COPPE/Produção, Universidade Federal de Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
c
Departamento de Matemáticas, Universidad Católica del Norte, Av. Angamos 0610 Antofagasta, Chile

article info abstract

Article history: Taking a Fiedler’s result on the spectrum of a matrix formed from two symmetric matrices
Received 29 October 2010 as a motivation, a more general result is deduced and applied to the determination of
Received in revised form 9 August 2012 adjacency and Laplacian spectra of graphs obtained by a generalized join graph operation
Accepted 15 October 2012
on families of graphs (regular in the case of adjacency spectra and arbitrary in the case
Available online 13 November 2012
of Laplacian spectra). Some additional consequences are explored, namely regarding the
largest eigenvalue and algebraic connectivity.
Keywords: © 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Graphs and linear algebra
Graph operations
Graph eigenvalues
Connectivity

1. Notation and preliminaries

In this paper we consider undirected simple graphs herein simply called graphs. The edge set of a graph G is denoted by
E (G) and its vertex set is denoted by V (G). The cardinality of V (G) is called the order of G. If e ∈ E (G) has end vertices u and
v , then we say that u and v are adjacent and this edge is denoted by uv . If u ∈ V (G), then NG (u) is the set of neighbors of
u in G, that is, NG (u) = {v ∈ V (G) : uv ∈ E (G)}. The cardinality of NG (u) is said to be the degree of u. A graph G is called
p-regular when every vertex has the same degree equal to p. The adjacency matrix of the graph G of order n, A(G), is a 0 − 1
matrix of order n with entries aij such that aij = 1 if ij ∈ E (G) and aij = 0 otherwise. The eigenvalues λ1 , . . . , λn of A(G) are
also considered as the eigenvalues of G (cf. [4,5]). We denote the spectra (multiset of eigenvalues) of a square matrix A by
(s )
σ (A) and if A = A(G), then the multiset of its eigenvalues is denoted by σ (G) (usually, we write σ (G) = {λ1 1 , . . . , λ(msm ) },
where (sj ) is the multiplicity of the eigenvalue λj , for 1 ≤ j ≤ m).
Considering a square matrix A, one of its eigenvalues λ and an associated eigenvector u, the pair (λ, u) is called an
eigenpair of A. The eigenpairs of the adjacency matrix of a graph G are also called the eigenpairs of G. The Laplacian matrix of
a graph G is the matrix L(G) = D(G) − A(G), where D(G) is the diagonal matrix of the vertex degrees of G, and the Laplacian
spectrum of G is denoted by σL (G).

∗
Corresponding author.
E-mail addresses: dcardoso@ua.pt (D.M. Cardoso), maguieiras@im.ufrj.br (M.A.A. de Freitas), enide@ua.pt (E.A. Martins), mrobbiano@ucn.cl
(M. Robbiano).

0012-365X/$ – see front matter © 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.disc.2012.10.016
734 D.M. Cardoso et al. / Discrete Mathematics 313 (2013) 733–741

From now on, if x = (x1 , . . . , xn ) ∈ Rn , then x↓ will denote the vector obtained from x by rearranging the coordinates
↓ ↓ ↓ ↓
in non-increasing order. Thus, if x↓ = (x1 , . . . , xn ), then x1 ≥ · · · ≥ xn . Additionally, λ(A) will denote the vector whose
coordinates are the eigenvalues of a symmetric matrix A in any order and if A has order n, then λ↓ (A) 1 ≥ λ↓ (A) 2 ≥
  

· · · ≥ λ↓ (A) n .
 
Before proceeding, it seems convenient to remind the following result, known as the Cauchy Interlacing Theorem (see,
for instance, [4,5]).
 
B ∗
Theorem 1. Let A be an Hermitian matrix of order n and B a principal submatrix of A of order k such that A = ∗ ∗ . Then,
for j = 1, 2, . . . , k,

λ (A) j ≥ λ↓ (B) j ≥ λ↓ (A) j+(n−k) .

 ↓     

In [10], based on Lemma 2 (see [6]), published by Fiedler and herein called Fiedler’s lemma, eigenspaces of some graphs
were obtained and these results were applied to graph energy.

Lemma 2 ([6]). Let A and B be symmetric matrices of orders m and n, respectively, with corresponding eigenpairs (αi , ui ) , i =
1, . . . , m and (βi , vi ) , i = 1, . . . , n, respectively. Suppose that ∥u1 ∥ = 1 = ∥v1 ∥. Then, for any ρ the matrix

ρ u1 vT1
 
A
C =
ρ v1 uT1 B

α1 ρ
 
has eigenvalues α2 , . . . , αm , β2 , . . . , βn , γ1 , γ2 , where γ1 , γ2 are the eigenvalues of the matrix 
C = ρ β1 .

In [2], Fiedler’s lemma was extended to more than two block diagonal square matrices and the obtained extension was
applied to the determination of eigenvalues of graphs determined from a sequence in which the vertices of each graph are
connected with the vertices of the next one by the join operation of both. Additionally, new lower and upper bounds on the
graph energy were obtained. In this paper, using again Fiedler’s lemma as a motivation, a more general result is deduced
and applied to the determination of the adjacency and Laplacian spectra of graphs produced by a generalized join operation
on families of graphs (regular in the case of adjacency spectra and arbitrary in the case of Laplacian spectra). This graph
operation, herein called H-join of a family of graphs G1 , . . . , Gk , where H is an arbitrary graph of order k, is the same as
the so called generalized composition, considered in [11] with the notation H [G1 , . . . , Gk ]. In [11], the adjacency spectra of
H [G1 , . . . , Gk ], when G1 , . . . , Gk are all regular, has already been treated. More recently, using almost equitable partitions [1],
in [8] the Laplacian eigenvectors and eigenvalues of the H-join (generalized composition) of a family of graphs G1 , . . . , Gk
are determined. As proved in [8], all the eigenvalues of each of the graphs of the family with eigenspaces orthogonal to the
all-one vector are also eigenvalues of the H-join. Following a different approach, the same result is proven in the context
of this paper. The remaining Laplacian eigenvectors and eigenvalues are obtained in [8] taking into account that, if G is the
H-join of the graphs G1 , . . . , Gk , then π = (V (G1 ), . . . , V (Gk )) is an almost equitable partition [1] in G, and thus applying
the relations between eigenvectors and eigenvalues of the Laplacian of the quotient digraph G/π (a nonsymmetric matrix)
with the Laplacian eigenvectors and eigenvalues of G obtained in [1]. In this paper, first a generalization of Fiedler’s lemma
is deduced. This generalization is applied to the determination of the spectra of the H-join of graph families, computing the
eigenvalues of symmetric matrices with much lower dimension than the order of the H-join. This approach introduces a
new tool for the research on graph spectra of different families of graphs with particular combinatorial structure, as it is the
case of the families of graphs with (k, τ )-regular sets [3] and other particular families defined or not by almost equitable
partitions.
Concerning the results introduced in [2], notice that they were obtained for particular H-joins, where H is a path.
Furthermore, in this paper, some consequences on the largest adjacency eigenvalue and algebraic connectivity are
explored.

2. A generalization of a Fiedler’s result

For j ∈ {1, 2, . . . , k}, let Mj be an mj × mj symmetric matrix, with corresponding eigenpairs αr ,j , ur ,j , 1 ≤ r ≤ mj .

 
Moreover, for q ∈ {1, . . . , k − 1} and l ∈ {q + 1, . . . , k}, let ρq,l be arbitrary constants. Let 
α be the k-tuple

α = (αi1 ,1 , . . . , αik ,k ),
 (1)
k(k−1)
where each αij ,j is chosen from the elements of {α1,j , . . . , αmj ,j }, with j ∈ {1, . . . , k}. Then, considering an arbitrary 2
-
tuple of reals

ρ = (ρ1,2 , ρ1,3 , . . . , ρ1,k , ρ2,3 , . . . , ρ2,k , . . . , ρk−1,k ),


 D.M. Cardoso et al. / Discrete Mathematics 313 (2013) 733–741 735

we define the symmetric matrices

 M1 ρ1,2 ui1 ,1 uTi2 ,2 ··· ρ1,k ui1 ,1 uTik ,k 

 ρ1,2 ui ,2 uTi ,1 M2 ··· ρ2,k ui2 ,2 uTik ,k 
 2 1 
 ρ1,3 ui3 ,3 uTi1 ,1 ρ T
ρ T
 
2,3 ui3 ,3 ui2 ,2 ··· 3,k ui3 ,3 uik ,k 
α (
C ρ) =  .. .. .. (2)
 
.. 

 . . . .


ρ1,k−1 uik−1 ,k−1 uTi ,1 ρ2,k−1 uik−1 ,k−1 uTi2 ,2 ρk−1,k uik−1 ,k−1 uTik ,k 
 
1
···
ρ T
1,k uik ,k ui1 ,1 ρ T
2,k uik ,k ui2 ,2 ··· Mk

and

αi1 ,1 ρ1,2 ··· ρ1,k−1 ρ1,k

 
 ρ1,2 αi2 ,2 ··· ρ2,k−1 ρ2,k 
.. .. .. .. ..
α (
ρ) =  .
 
C

 . . . . .  (3)
ρ ρ2,k−1 ··· αik−1 ,k−1 ρk−1,k
1,k−1

ρ1,k ρ2,k ··· ρk−1,k αik ,k

Theorem 3. For j ∈ {1, 2, . . . , k}, let Mj be an mj × mj symmetric matrix, with eigenpairs αr ,j , ur ,j ∀r ∈ Ij = {1, . . . , mj }
 
k(k−1)
and suppose that for each j the system of eigenvectors {ur ,j , r ∈ Ij } is orthonormal. Consider a 2 -tuple of scalars  ρ =
(ρ1,2 , ρ1,3 , . . . , ρ1,k , ρ2,3 , . . . , ρ2,k , . . . , ρk−1,k ) and the k-tuple 
α = (αi1 ,1 , . . . , αik ,k ) as defined in (1). Then the matrix Cα (
ρ)
in (2) has the multiset of eigenvalues
 
k

{α1,j , . . . , αmj, j } \ {αij ,j } ∪ {γ1 , . . . , γk },
j=1

where γ1 , γ2 , . . . , γk are eigenvalues of the matrix α (

C ρ ) in (3).
T
α (
ρ ) and j ∈ {1, 2, . . . , k}, let γj , w j = w1,j w2,j wk,j
  
Proof. For the matrix 
C j be one of its eigenpairs, where w ···
and then

αi1 ,1 ρ1,2 ··· ρ1,k−1 ρ1,k w 1 ,j

  
 ρ1,2 αi2 ,2 ··· ρ2,k−1 ρ2,k  w2,j 
α (
C ρ )  ..
wj =  .. .. .. ..    ..  (4)
  
. . . . . .
ρ1,k ρ2,k · · · ρk−1,k αik ,k wk,j
w1,j
 
w2,j 
= γj 
 ..  = γj w
 j .
.
wk,j
w
1,j ui1 ,1

w2,j ui2 ,2 
uj =
Let   .. . Then  uj is an (m1 + m2 + · · · + mk )-vector, and it follows that
.
wk,j uik ,k

ρ1,2 ui1 ,1 uTi2 ,2

ρ1,k ui1 ,1 uTik ,k w1,j ui1 ,1 
 
M1 ···
ρ1,2 ui2 ,2 uTi ,1
M2 ρ2,k ui2 ,2 uik ,k  w2,j ui2 ,2 
T 
···
α (
ρ )
1
C uj =  .. .. .. .. . 

  .. 

 . . . .
ρ1,k uik ,k uTi1 ,1 ρ2,k uik ,k uTi2 ,2 Mk wk,j uik ,k
···
αi1 ,1 w1,j ui1 ,1 + ρ1,2 w2,j ui1 ,1 + · · · + ρ1,k wk,j ui1 ,1
 
ρ1,2 w1,j ui2 ,2 + αi2 ,2 w2,j ui2 ,2 + · · · + ρ2,k wk,j ui2 ,2 
= .. 
.
 
ρ1,k w1,j uik ,k + ρ2,k w2,j uik ,k + · · · + αik ,k wk,j uik ,k
736 D.M. Cardoso et al. / Discrete Mathematics 313 (2013) 733–741

αi1 ,1 w1,j + ρ1,2 w2,j + · · · + ρ1,k wk,j ui1 ,1

  

 ρ1,2 w1,j + αi2 ,2 w2,j + · · · + ρ2,k wk,j ui2 ,2 

   
= .
 .. 
 . 
ρ1,k w1,j + ρ2,k w2,j + · · · + αik ,k wk,j uik ,k
 

Therefore, by (4), we have

γj w1,j ui1 ,1 w1,j ui1 ,1

   
γj w2,j ui2 ,2  w2,j ui ,2 
α (
C ρ ) uj =  ..  = γj  . 2  = γj uj
 . 
. .
 
γj wk,j uik ,k wk,j uik ,k

and thus each one of the k eigenpairs in the set { γj , α (

ρ ). Furthermore, for
 
uj : 1 ≤ j ≤ k} is an eigenpair of C
j ∈ {1, 2, . . . , k} and for each pair αr ,j , ur ,j with r ∈ Ij \ {ij }, we have
 

 0
 
ρ1,2 uii ,1 uTi2 ,2 · · · ρ1,k ui1 ,1 uTik ,k

M1
 .. 
ρ1,2 ui2 ,2 uTi ,1 M2 · · · ρ2,k ui2 ,2 uTik ,k   . 
 ur ,j  = αr ,j
ur ,j ,
1
.. .. . .
  
.. ..

 . .  . 
 . 
ρ1,k uik ,k uTi1 ,1 ρ2,k uik ,k uTi2 ,2 · · · Mk .
0
 
0
 .. 
 . 
ur ,j . Hence, for j ∈ {1, 2, . . . , k}, each pair αr ,j , α (
ρ ). Finally,
 
ur ,j = 
where   ur ,j , with r ∈ Ij \ {ij }, is also an eigenpair of C
 .. 
.
0
k  
it is immediate that all these eigenvectors in uj } ∪ {
j=1 { ur ,j : r ∈ Ij \ {ij }} are linear independent. 

As a consequence of Theorems 1 and 3, we have the following corollary.

Corollary 4. For j ∈ {1, 2, . . . , k}, let Mj be an mj × mj symmetric matrix, with eigenpairs αrj , urj ∀r ∈ Ij = {1, . . . , mj } and
 
k(k−1)
suppose that for each j the system of eigenvectors {urj , r ∈ Ij } is orthonormal. Considering a 2
-tuple of arbitrary scalars

ρ = (ρ1,2 , ρ1,3 , . . . , ρ1,k , ρ2,3 , . . . , ρ2,k , . . . , ρk−1,k ),


α = λ↓ (M1 ) 1 , . . . , λ↓ (Mk ) 1 , and denoting λ1 (Cα ( ρ )) 1 and λ1 (
ρ )) = λ↓ (Cα ( α (
ρ )) = λ↓ (α (
ρ )) 1 , then
        
the k-tuple  C C

λ1 (Cα (
ρ )) = λ1 (α (
C ρ )).

Proof. By Theorem 3, λ1 (C

α (
ρ )) ≥ λ1 (α (
ρ )) and, by Theorem 1, λ1 (α (
ρ )) ≥ λ↓ (Mj ) 1 , for j ∈ {1, . . . , k} (that is,
 
C C
λ1 (α (
C ρ )) is greater than or equal to each of the diagonal entries of the matrix α (
C ρ )). Therefore,

λ1 (Cα (
ρ )) ≥ λ1 (α (
ρ )) ≥ max λ (Mj ) 1 , 1 ≤ j ≤ k .
 ↓  
C (5)

1. If λ1 (C
α (
ρ )) = max λ (Mj ) 1 , 1 ≤ j ≤ k , then (5) implies
 ↓  

λ1 (Cα (
ρ )) ≥ λ1 (Cα (
ρ )) ≥ λ1 (Cα (
ρ )).
2. If λ1 (Cα (
ρ )) > max λ (Mj ) 1 , 1 ≤ j ≤ k , then λ1 (Cα ( ρ )) > max{αr ,j : r ∈ Ij , 1 ≤ j ≤ k} and hence, by Theorem 3,
 ↓  

λ1 (Cα (
ρ )) ∈ σ ( α (
C ρ )) and λ1 (Cα (
ρ )) ≤ λ1 ( α (
C ρ )). Then, this inequality and (5) imply λ1 (Cα (
ρ )) ≤ λ1 (α (
C ρ )) ≤
λ1 (Cα (
ρ )). 

3. Graph eigenvalues of a generalized join graph operation on graph families

In this section, we consider a family of k graphs, F = {G1 , . . . , Gk }, such that each Gj has order nj , for j ∈ {1, . . . , k} and
a graph H such that V (H ) = {1, . . . , k}. Each vertex j ∈ V (H ) is assigned to the graph Gj ∈ F .
 D.M. Cardoso et al. / Discrete Mathematics 313 (2013) 733–741 737

2 5 7 2 5 7

1 6 8 1 6 8

3 4 9 3 4 9
G1 G2 G3 VP 3 {G1, G2, G3}

Fig. 1. The H-join of F = {K3 , K2 , C4 }, with H = P3 .

Usually, considering two graphs Gr and Gs , the join Gr ∨ Gs is the graph G such that V (G) = V (Gr ) ∪ V (Gs ) and
E (G) = E (Gr ) ∪ E (Gs ) ∪ {uv : u ∈ V (Gr ), v ∈ V (Gs )}. Now, considering the family of graphs F and the graph H, the
H-join of G1 , . . . , Gk is the graph G = H {Gj , j ∈ V (H )} such that V (G) = r =1 V (Gr ) and
 k
   
k
 
E (G) = E (Gr ) ∪ {uv : u ∈ V (Gr ), v ∈ V (Gs )} .
r =1 rs∈E (H )

Therefore, when H = K2 the H-join is the usual join graph operation. The same generalization of the join operations was
considered in [11], under the designation of generalized composition of the graphs G1 , . . . , Gk along the graph H and denoted
by H [G1 , . . . , Gk ].
For instance, consider the graph H = P3 , the path with three vertices. Since the vertices of P3 with degree one are labeled
1 and 3, respectively, then in the H-join of the graphs G1 , G2 and G3 depicted in Fig. 1, the graphs G1 and G3 are assigned
to the 
vertices 1 and 3 and the graph G2 is assigned to the vertex of P3 with degree two. Using the terminology in [11], the
graph P3 {G1 , G2 , G3 } coincides with the generalized composition P3 [G1 , G2 , G3 ].
Throughout thissection, for each j ∈ {1, . . . , k}, Mj will denote a symmetric matrix (adjacency or Laplacian) assigned to
the graph Gj , λ Mj = (α1,j , . . . , αnj ,j ), and it is assumed that the corresponding eigenvectors ur ,j , with r ∈ {1, . . . , nj }, are
k(k−1)
orthonormal. Then, we may define the 2
-tuple of scalars

ρH F = (ρ1,2 , ρ1,3 , . . . , ρ1,k , ρ2,3 , . . . , ρ2,k , . . . , ρk−1,k )

 (6)

assigned to H and to the family F , such that

√
√ nl nq if lq ∈ E (H ),
ρl,q = ρq,l = nl nq = (7)
0 otherwise

for l ∈ {1, . . . , k − 1} and q ∈ {l + 1, . . . , k}. From now on, we denote by α (

C ρH F ), where 
α = (αi1 ,1 , . . . , αik ,k ) is defined
in (1), the k × k symmetric matrix

αi1 ,1 ρ1,2 ··· ρ1,k−1 ρ1,k

 
 ρ1,2 αi2 ,2 ··· ρ2,k−1 ρ2,k 
α (
C ρH F ) = 
 .. .. .. .. ..  (8)

. . . . .

ρ1,k ρ2,k ··· ρk−1,k αik ,k
ρH F as defined in (7).
with 

3.1. Adjacency spectra of a generalized join of regular graph families

Let us consider that all graphs in F are regular and also that Mj is the adjacency matrix of a pj -regular graph Gj ∈ F , for
j = 1, . . . , k. Assuming that 
α = (αi1 ,1 , . . . , αik ,k ) is such that αij ,j = pj and uij ,j = √1n ê(nj ) , where ê(nj ) is the all-one vector
j
with nj components, for j ∈ {1, . . . , k}, the next result is a direct application of Theorem 3. However, for this particular case,
using equitable partition properties, a similar theorem was obtained in [11].

Theorem 5. Consider the previously family F of pj -regular graphs, Gj , of order nj , for j ∈ {1, . . . , k}, and a graph H such that
V (H ) = {1, . . . , k}.  α be as above defined and 
Furthermore, let  ρH F as in (6) and (7). Then the matrix Cα (
ρH F ) is the adjacency
matrix of the H-join H F and, therefore,
   
 k

σ σ (Gj ) \ {pj } ∪ σ (α (
ρH F )).
 
F = C
H j=1

α (
Proof. The proof follows directly from Theorem 3, bearing in mind how the matrix C ρH F ) is constructed. 
738 D.M. Cardoso et al. / Discrete Mathematics 313 (2013) 733–741


Example 6. Consider the H-join depicted in Fig. 1, where H = P3 . Let us determine the spectra of H F , with F =
{G1 , G2 , G3 }.
Since σ (G1 ) = {−1(2) , 2}, σ (G2 ) = {−1, 1}, and σ (G3 ) = {−2, 0(2) , 2}, respectively, 
α = (2, 1, 2), and
 √ 
√2 6 √0
α (
C ρH F ) =  6 √1 8 .

0 8 2
Then
 

σ F = (σ (G1 ) \ {2}) ∪ (σ (G2 ) \ {1}) ∪ (σ (G3 ) \ {2}) ∪ σ (α (
C ρH F ))
H
 √ √ 
(2) (2) 3− 57 3+ 57
= {−1 } ∪ {−1} ∪ {−2, 0 } ∪ , 2,
2 2
 √ √ 
3− 57 3+ 57
= −2, −1(3) , 0(2) , , 2, .
2 2

Regarding the maximum eigenvalue (also called index) of the H-join H F , as direct consequence of the Frobenius lower
and upper bounds on the maximum eigenvalue of nonnegative matrices [7] (see [9]) and Corollary 4, we may conclude the
following lower and upper bounds.

Corollary 7. Consider the family F of pj -regulargraphs of order nj (1 ≤ j ≤ k) and a graph H. Furthermore, let 
ρH F be as in (6)
H {G1 , . . . , Gk }, λ1 ( H {G1 , . . . , Gk }), is such that

and (7). Then the index of
     
 √   √
min pj + ni nj ≤ λ1 {G1 , . . . , Gk } ≤ max pj + ni nj .
1≤j≤k 1≤j≤k
i∈NH (j) H i∈NH (j)
 √
If the graph H is connected either of the inequalities holds as equality if and only if min1≤j≤k {pj + i∈NH (j) ni nj } =
 √
max1≤j≤k {pj + i∈NH (j) ni nj }.
Applying Corollary 7 to Example 6, it follows that
√ √ √ √ √
4.4495 = 2 + 6 = min{2 + 6, 1 + 6+ 8, 2 + 8}
 

≤ λ1 {G1 , G2 , G3 }
P3
√
3+ 57
= = 5.2749
2
√ √ √ √
≤ max{2 + 6, 1 + 6 + 8, 2 + 8}
√ √
= 1 + 6 + 8 = 6.2779.

3.2. Laplacian spectra of a generalized join of arbitrary graph families

Let us consider that Mj = Lj + Nj Inj , where Lj is the Laplacian matrix of an arbitrary graph Gj ∈ F and

 ni , if NH (j) ̸= ∅,
Nj = i∈NH (j)
0, otherwise,
and Inj is the identity matrix of order nj , for j ∈ {1, . . . , k}. Each pair (Nj , √1n ê(nj ) ), where ê(nj ) is the all-one vector with nj
j
components, is an eigenpair of Mj , for j ∈ {1, . . . , k}. Then, defining α = (N1 , . . . , Nk ) and considering  ρH F as in (6) and (7),
it follows that the matrix
L 1 + N 1 In 1 −ρ1,2 ui1 ,1 uTi2 ,2 ··· −ρ1,k ui1 ,1 uTik ,k
 
 −ρ1,2 ui2 ,2 uTi ,1 L2 + N2 In2 ··· −ρ2,k ui2 ,2 uTik ,k 
1
 −ρ1,3 ui3 ,3 uTi ,1 T
−ρ3,k ui3 ,3 uTik ,k 
 
−ρ2,3 ui3 ,3 ui2 ,2 ···
α (−
ρH F ) = 
1
C . . . .
 
.. .. .. ..

 
 
−ρ1,k−1 ui uT
k−1 ,k−1 i1 ,1
−ρ T
2,k−1 uik−1 ,k−1 ui2 ,2 ··· −ρ T
k−1,k uik−1 ,k−1 uik ,k

T T
−ρ 1,k uik ,k ui1 ,1 −ρ 2,k uik ,k ui2 ,2 ··· L k + N k In k
 D.M. Cardoso et al. / Discrete Mathematics 313 (2013) 733–741 739

2 5 7 2 5 7

1 6 8 1 6 8

3 4 9 3 4 9
G1 G2 G3 VP3 {G1, G2, G3}

Fig. 2. The H-join of F = {G1 , G2 , G3 }, with H = P3 .

is the Laplacian matrix of H F . In fact, since Lj + Nj Inj = D(Gj ) + Nj Inj − A(Gj ), where D(Gj ) and A(Gj ) are the diagonal
  

matrix of the vertex degrees and the adjacency matrix of Gj , respectively, for j ∈ {1, . . . , k}, then L( H F ) = Cα (−ρH F ).

Furthermore, taking into account that
N1 −ρ1,2 ··· −ρ1,k
 
−ρ1,2 N2 ··· −ρ2,k 
α (−
ρH F ) =  ,
C  .. .. ..

. . . −ρk−1,k

−ρ1,k −ρ2,k ··· Nk

we have the following result.

Theorem 8. Let F be a family of k graphs Gj of order nj , with j ∈ {1, . . . , k}, with Laplacian spectrum σL (Gj ). If H is a graph
such that V (H ) = {1, . . . , k}, then the Laplacian spectrum of H F is given by
   
 k

σL F = (Nj + (σL (Gj ) \ {0})) ∪ σ (α (−
C ρH F )),
H j =1

α = (N1 , . . . , Nk ) and Nj + σL (Gj ) \ {0} means that Nj is added to each element of σL (Gj ) \ {0}.
 
where 

α (−
ρ H F ) = L( F ) and 
α = (N1 , . . . , Nk ), applying Theorem 3, we have

Proof. Since C H
   
 k

σL F = σ (Lj + Nj Inj ) \ {Nj } ∪ σ (α (−
C ρH F )). 
H j =1

Example 9. Considering the family of graphs F = {G1 , G2 , G3 } depicted in Fig. 2 and the graph H = P3 , let us determine
the Laplacian spectrum of G = H F , that is, σL (G).
α = (N1 , N2 , N3 ) = (2, 7, 2),
Since 
 √ 
2
√ − 6 0
√
α (−
C ρH F ) = − 6 7 − 8 ,

√
0 − 8 2

σL (G1 ) = {0, 1, 3}, σL (G2 ) = {0, 2}, σL (G3 ) = {0, 3(2) , 4}, then
 
F = {3, 5} ∪ {9} ∪ {5(2) , 6} ∪ σ (

σL α (−
C ρH F ))
H

= {3, 5(3) , 6, 9} ∪ {0, 2, 9}

= {0, 2, 3, 5(3) , 6, 9(2) }.

As an immediate consequence of Theorem 8 we have the following corollary.

Corollary 10. For any family F of k graphs, G1 , . . . , Gk , and a graph H, such that V (H ) = {1, . . . , k}, the matrix  α (−
C ρH F ),
α = (N1 , . . . , Nk ), is singular. Furthermore, if the graph H is connected, then the matrix 
with  α (−
C ρH F ) has nullity (that is, the
multiplicity of eigenvalue 0) equal to 1.

Proof. If the matrix Cα (−

ρH F ) has a diagonal entry Ni = 0, then by construction, all the entries in the i-row of  Cα (−
ρH F )
are zero and then it is singular. If none of the diagonal entries is zero, that is, Nj > 0, for j ∈ {1, . . . , k}, from Theorem 8, each
element of Nj +(σL (Gj )\{0}) is positive. Since 0 is an eigenvalue of the Laplacian matrix of G = H F and L(G) =  α (−ρH F ),

C
then 0 ∈ σ (
Cα (−
ρH F )). The last part follows from the connectivity of G, which happens when the graph H is connected. 
740 D.M. Cardoso et al. / Discrete Mathematics 313 (2013) 733–741

Corollary 11. For every family F of k graphs, G1 , . . . , Gk , and any graph H, such that V (H ) = {1, . . . , k}, the matrix α (−
C ρH F )
and the Laplacian matrix of H , L(H ), have the same nullity.
Proof. Let C = {H1 , . . . , Hm } be the family of connected
 components
 of H. Thus the nullity of L(H ) is equal to m. By using the
α (−
ρH F ) is a block diagonal matrix,
  m 
construction of H F it follows that H F = j=1 Hj F . Therefore, the matrix 
C
where each diagonal block is equal to αj (−
C ρHj F ), for j ∈ {1, . . . , m}, where 
αj is in connection with V (Hj ). Since each Hj is
Cαj (−
a connected graph, Corollary 10 implies that the the nullity of  ρHj F ) is equal to 1 and then the result follows. 
F , a(G), which is equal to the second-smallest eigenvalue of L(G), we

Regarding the algebraic connectivity of G = H
have the following corollaries.

Corollary 12. Let F be a family of k graphs, Gj for j ∈ {1, . . . , k}, and H a connected graph such that V (H ) = {1, . . . , k}.
If a(Gj∗ ) + Nj∗ = min{a(Gj ) + Nj : 1 ≤ j ≤ k} and λ∗ = λ↓ ( α (− α = (N1 , . . . , Nk ), then
ρH F )) k−1 , with 
 
C
a( H F ) = min{a(Gj∗ ) + Nj∗ , λ∗ }.


Proof. From Theorem 8,

   
 k

σL σ (Lj + Nj Inj ) \ {Nj } ∪ σ (α (−
ρH F )),
 
F = C
H j =1

α = (N1 , . . . , Nk ). On the other hand, the minimum eigenvalue in σ (Lj + Nj Inj ) \ {Nj } is a(Gj ) + Nj , for j ∈ {1, . . . , k}.
with 
σ (Lj + Nj Inj ) \ {Nj } is
k  
Then the minimum eigenvalue in j =1

a(Gj∗ ) + Nj∗ = min{a(Gj ) + Nj : 1 ≤ j ≤ k}.

Furthermore, applying Corollary 10, the matrix α (−

C ρH F ) has nullity 1. Therefore, the second smallest eigenvalue in
σL ( H F ) is the minimum among the second smallest eigenvalue in σ ( α (−
ρH F )) and a(Gj∗ ) + Nj∗ . 

C
Denoting by Pr ,s a permutation matrix obtained from the identity matrix In , with n ∈ N, which changes the r-th row with
the s-th row by Pr ,s (that is, the transposition matrix), we may introduce the following result.

Corollary 13. Let F be a family of k graphs Gj of order nj , for j ∈ {1, . . . , k} and H a connected graph. Then
     
1
 
a F ≤ min Nr + Ns + (Nr − Ns )2 + 4ρr2,s , 1 ≤ r < s ≤ k .
H
2

Proof. For the indices r , s ∈ {1, . . . , k}, with r ̸= s, consider the permutation
 matrix
 P = P2,s P1,r . Then the matrices
Nr −ρr ,s
α (−
P C ρH F )P and Cα (−
ρH F ) are similar. Moreover the matrix Brs = −ρ is a principal submatrix of order 2 of
 
N r ,s s

Pα (−
C ρH F )P. Applying Theorem 1 and Corollary 12, we may conclude that
λ (Br ,s ) 1 ≥ λ↓ (P α (−ρH F )P ) k−1
 ↓   
C

= λ↓ (α (− ρH F )) k−1

 
C
 

≥a F .
H
  
Since λ↓ (Br ,s ) 1 = 1
(Nr − Ns )2 + 4ρr2,s the result follows.
 
2
Nr + Ns + 

Acknowledgments

The authors are indebted to the anonymous referees for their valuable comments and suggestions, which led to an
improvement of the original manuscript.
Domingos M. Cardoso and Enide A. Martins are supported by FEDER funds through COMPETE—Operational Programme
Factors of Competitiveness and by Portuguese funds through the Center for Research and Development in Mathematics
and Applications (University of Aveiro) and the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (‘‘FCT—Fundação
para a Ciência e a Tecnologia’’), within project PEst-C/MAT/UI4106/2011 with COMPETE number FCOMP-01-0124-FEDER-
022690. M. Robbiano is partially supported by Fondecyt Grant 11090211, Chile. All the authors are members of the Project
PTDC/MAT/112276/2009.
The first and the third author’s research is supported by Centre for Research and Development in Mathematics and
Applications from the Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia - FCT, cofinanced by the European Community Fund
FEDER/POCI 2010. The fourth author’s research is supported by Comisión Nacional de Investigación Científica y Tecnológica
CONICYT-CHILE, through the Proyecto FONDECYT IC N◦ 11090211.
 D.M. Cardoso et al. / Discrete Mathematics 313 (2013) 733–741 741

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