English

The graph spectrum of barycentric refinements

Discrete Mathematics 2015-08-11 v1 Combinatorics Spectral Theory

Abstract

Given a finite simple graph G, let G' be its barycentric refinement: it is the graph in which the vertices are the complete subgraphs of G and in which two such subgraphs are connected, if one is contained into the other. If L(0)=0<L(1) <= L(2) ... <= L(n) are the eigenvalues of the Laplacian of G, define the spectral function F(x) as the function F(x) = L([n x]) on the interval [0,1], where [r] is the floor function giving the largest integer smaller or equal than r. The graph G' is known to be homotopic to G with Euler characteristic chi(G')=chi(G) and dim(G') >= dim(G). Let G(m) be the sequence of barycentric refinements of G=G(0). We prove that for any finite simple graph G, the spectral functions F(G(m)) of successive refinements converge for m to infinity uniformly on compact subsets of (0,1) and exponentially fast to a universal limiting eigenvalue distribution function F which only depends on the clique number respectively the dimension d of the largest complete subgraph of G and not on the starting graph G. In the case d=1, where we deal with graphs without triangles, the limiting distribution is the smooth function F(x) = 4 sin^2(pi x/2). This is related to the Julia set of the quadratic map T(z) = 4z-z^2 which has the one dimensional Julia set [0,4] and F satisfies T(F(k/n))=F(2k/n) as the Laplacians satisfy such a renormalization recursion. The spectral density in the d=1 case is then the arc-sin distribution which is the equilibrium measure on the Julia set. In higher dimensions, where the limiting function F still remains unidentified, F' appears to have a discrete or singular component.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1508.02027,
  title  = {The graph spectrum of barycentric refinements},
  author = {Oliver Knill},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1508.02027},
  year   = {2015}
}

Comments

20 pages 12 figures

R2 v1 2026-06-22T10:29:25.493Z