English

Two Conjectures on Extensions of Brouwer's Laplacian Conjecture

Combinatorics 2026-07-09 v1

Abstract

Let G=(V,E)G=(V,E) be a simple graph of order nn and let λ1(G)λn(G)\lambda_1(G)\ge \cdots \ge \lambda_n(G) be the eigenvalues of its Laplacian matrix. Brouwer conjectured that for every 1kn1\le k\le n, i=1kλi(G)E+(k+12)\sum_{i=1}^k\lambda_i(G)\le |E|+\binom{k+1}{2}. Lew (JCTB, 2026) established a weaker form of Brouwer's Laplacian eigenvalue inequality. The full Brouwer conjecture was recently proved by Kothari and Tudose. Lew also proposed two conjectures for upper bounds on the sum of the largest Laplacian eigenvalues, one in terms of the matching number and one in terms of the vertex-cover number. Using Brouwer's Laplacian inequality, we prove both conjectures.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2607.08452,
  title  = {Two Conjectures on Extensions of Brouwer's Laplacian Conjecture},
  author = {Junying Lu and Jia-Bao Yang},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2607.08452},
  year   = {2026}
}

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11 pages