The Algebraic Connectivity and Laplacian Spectral Radius of Token Graphs

Abstract

For a graph $G=(V,E)$ of order $n$ and an integer $k$ between $1$ and $\lfloor\frac{n}{2}\rfloor$, its token graph $F_k(G)$ is the graph whose vertices consist of the $\binom{n}{k}$ $k$-subsets of $V$, and two vertices of $F_k(G)$ are adjacent whenever their symmetric difference is an edge in $E$. It was found that the algebraic connectivity of a graph is greater than or equal to that of its token graph, while the Laplacian spectral radius of a graph is less than or equal to that of its token graph. Moreover, a conjecture that the algebraic connectivity of a graph coincides with that of its token graph has been proved by using the theory of continuous Markov chains of random walks. In this paper, we derive some results about the algebraic connectivities of a graph and the same graph after adding new edges and their token graphs to obtain a combinatorial/algebraic proof. Besides, we provide some conditions under which the Laplacian spectral radius of a graph is less than that of its token graph. Finally, we characterize the graphs that have the same Laplacian spectral radius as their token graphs, including trees.