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We consider lifting eigenvalues and eigenvectors of graphs to their {\em factored lifts}, derived by means of a {\em combined voltage assignment} in a group. The latter extends the concept of (ordinary) voltage assignments known from regular coverings and corresponds to the cases of generalized covers of Poto\v{c}nik and Toledo (2021) in which a group of automorphisms of a lift acts freely on its arc set. With the help of group representations and certain matrices over complex group rings associated with the graphs to be lifted, we develop a method for the determination of the complete spectra of the factored lift graphs and derive a sufficient condition for lifting eigenvectors.

In this paper, we first give a new result characterizing the strongly connected digraphs with a diameter equal to that of their line digraphs. Then, we introduce the concepts of the inner diameter and inner radius of a digraph and study their behaviors in its iterated line digraphs. Furthermore, we provide a method to characterize sequences of integers (corresponding to the inner diameter or the number of vertices of a digraph and its iterated line digraphs) that satisfy some conditions. Among other examples, we apply the method to the cyclic Kautz digraphs, square-free digraphs, and the subdigraphs of De Bruijn digraphs. Finally, we present some tables with new sequences that do not belong to The On-Line Encyclopedia of Integer Sequences., Comment: arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:1607.08832

The chordal ring (CR) graphs are a well-known family of graphs used to model some interconnection networks for computer systems in which all nodes are in a cycle. Generalizing the CR graphs, in this paper, we introduce the families of chordal multi-ring (CMR), chordal ring mixed (CRM), and chordal multi-ring mixed (CMRM) graphs. In the case of mixed graphs, we can have edges (without direction) and arcs (with direction). The chordal ring and chordal ring mixed graphs are bipartite and 3-regular. They consist of a number $r$ (for $r\geq 1$) of (undirected or directed) cycles with some edges (the chords) joining them. In particular, for CMR, when $r=1$, that is, with only one undirected cycle, we obtain the known families of chordal ring graphs. Here, we use plane tessellations to represent our chordal multi-ring graphs. This allows us to obtain their maximum number of vertices for every given diameter. Besides, we computationally obtain their minimum diameter for any value of the number of vertices. Moreover, when seen as a lift graph (also called voltage graph) of a base graph on Abelian groups, we obtain closed formulas for the spectrum, that is, the eigenvalue multi-set of its adjacency matrix.

In this note, we give an infinite family of optimal graphs called $G^+(d,c)$. They are optimal in the sense that they have the maximum possible number of vertices for given a diameter $d$ and the so-called `outer multiset dimension' $c$. We provide their spectra, which have the property that their Laplacian eigenvalues are all different and integral. Finally, we also obtained their eigenvectors.

A bipartite graph $G=(V,E)$ with $V=V_1\cup V_2$ is biregular if all the vertices of each stable set, $V_1$ and $V_2$, have the same degree, $r$ and $s$, respectively. This paper studies difference sets derived from both Abelian and non-Abelian groups. From them, we propose some constructions of bipartite biregular graphs with diameter $d=3$ and asymptotically optimal order for given degrees $r$ and $s$. Moreover, we find some biMoore graphs, that is, bipartite biregular graphs that attain the Moore bound.

This paper describes a general method for representing $k$-token graphs of Cayley graphs as lifts of voltage graphs. This allows us to construct line graphs of circulant graphs and Johnson graphs as lift graphs on cyclic groups. As an application of the method, we derive the spectra of the considered token graphs. This method can also be applied to dealing with other matrices, such as the Laplacian or the signless Laplacian, and to construct token digraphs of Cayley digraphs.

In this note, we introduce the concept of factored lift, associated with a combined voltage graph, as a generalization of the lift graph. We present a new method for computing the eigenvalues and eigenspaces of factored lifts.

The $k$-token graph $F_k(G)$ of a graph $G$ is the graph whose vertices are the $k$-subsets of vertices from $G$, two of which being adjacent whenever their symmetric difference is a pair of adjacent vertices in $G$. In this paper, we propose a general method to find the spectrum and eigenspaces of the $k$-token graph $F_k(C_n)$ of a cycle $C_n$. The method is based on the theory of lift graphs and the recently introduced theory of over-lifts. In the case of $k=2$, we use continuous fractions to derive the spectrum and eigenspaces of the 2-token graph of $C_n$.

Mixed graphs can be seen as digraphs with arcs and edges (or digons, that is, two opposite arcs). In this paper, we consider the case where such graphs are bipartite and in which the undirected and directed degrees are one. The best graphs, in terms of the number of vertices, are presented for small diameters. Moreover, two infinite families of such graphs with diameter $k$ and number of vertices of the order of $2^{k/2}$ are proposed, one of them being totally regular $(1,1)$-mixed graphs. In addition, we present two more infinite families called chordal ring and chordal double ring mixed graphs, which are bipartite and related to tessellations of the plane. Finally, we give an upper bound that improves the Moore bound for bipartite mixed graphs for $r = z = 1$.

The $k$-token graph $F_k(G)$ of a graph $G$ is the graph whose vertices are the $k$-subsets of vertices from $G$, two of which being adjacent whenever their symmetric difference is a pair of adjacent vertices in $G$. In this article, we describe some properties of the Laplacian matrix $\L_k$ of $F_k(G)$ and the Laplacian matrix $\overline{\L}_k$ of the $k$-token graph $F_k(\overline{G})$ of its complement $\overline{G}$. In this context, a result about the commutativity of the matrices $\L_k$ and $\overline{\L}_k$ was given in [C. Dalf\'o, F. Duque, R. Fabila-Monroy, M. A. Fiol, C. Huemer, A. L. Trujillo-Negrete, and F. J. Zaragoza Mart\'{\i}nez, On the Laplacian spectra of token graphs, {\em Linear Algebra Appl.} {\bf 625} (2021) 322--348], but the proof was incomplete, and there were some typos. Here, we give the correct proof. Based on this result, and fixed the pair $(n,k)$ and the graph $G$, we first introduce a `local' algebra ${\cal L}(G)$, generated by the pair $(\L_k, \overline{\L}_k)$, showing its closed relationship with the Bose-Mesner algebra of the Johnson graphs $J(n,k)$. Finally, fixed only $(n,k)$, we present a `global' algebra ${\cal A}(n,k)$ that contains ${\cal L}(G)$ together with the Laplacian and adjacency matrices of the $k$-token graph of any graph $G$ on $n$ vertices.

We introduce the concept of a $k$-token signed graph and study some of its combinatorial and algebraic properties. We prove that two switching isomorphic signed graphs have switching isomorphic token graphs. Moreover, we show that the Laplacian spectrum of a balanced signed graph is contained in the Laplacian spectra of its $k$-token signed graph. Besides, we introduce and study the unbalance level of a signed graph, which is a new parameter that measures how far a signed graph is from being balanced. Moreover, we study the relation between the frustration index and the unbalance level of signed graphs and their token signed graphs.

Let $G$ be a graph on $n$ vertices. The $k$-token graph (or symmetric $k$-th power) of $G$, denoted by $F_k(G)$ has as vertices the ${n\choose k}$ $k$-subsets of vertices from $G$, and two vertices are adjacent when their symmetric difference is a pair of adjacent vertices in $G$. In particular, $F_k(K_n)$ is the Johnson graph $J(n,k)$, which is a distance-regular graph used in coding theory. In this paper, we present some results concerning the (adjacency and Laplacian) spectrum of $F_k(G)$ in terms of the spectrum of $G$. For instance, when $G$ is walk-regular, an exact value for the spectral radius $\rho$ (or maximum eigenvalue) of $F_k(G)$ is obtained. When $G$ is distance-regular, other eigenvalues of its $2$-token graph are derived using the theory of equitable partitions. A generalization of Aldous' spectral gap conjecture (which is now a theorem) is proposed.

An $(r,z,k)$-mixed graph $G$ has every vertex with undirected degree $r$, directed in- and out-degree $z$, and diameter $k$. In this paper, we study the case $r=z=1$, proposing some new constructions of $(1,1,k)$-mixed graphs with a large number of vertices $N$. Our study is based on computer techniques for small values of $k$ and the use of graphs on alphabets for general $k$. In the former case, the constructions are either Cayley or lift graphs. In the latter case, some infinite families of $(1,1,k)$-mixed graphs are proposed with diameter of the order of $2\log_2 N$.

We study the algebraic connectivity (or second Laplacian eigenvalue) of token graphs, also called symmetric powers of graphs. The $k$-token graph $F_k(G)$ of a graph $G$ is the graph whose vertices are the $k$-subsets of vertices from $G$, two of which being adjacent whenever their symmetric difference is a pair of adjacent vertices in $G$. Recently, it was conjectured that the algebraic connectivity of $F_k(G)$ equals the algebraic connectivity of $G$. In this paper, we prove the conjecture for new infinite families of graphs, such as trees and graphs with maximum degree large enough., Comment: arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:2012.00808

Almost Moore mixed graphs\/} appear in the context of the degree/diameter problem as a class of extremal mixed graphs, in the sense that their order is one unit less than the Moore bound for such graphs. The problem of their existence has been considered just for diameter $2$. In this paper, we give a complete characterization of these extremal mixed graphs for diameters 2 and 3. We also derive some optimal constructions for other diameters.

We study the Laplacian spectrum of token graphs, also called symmetric powers of graphs. The $k$-token graph $F_k(G)$ of a graph $G$ is the graph whose vertices are the $k$-subsets of vertices from $G$, two of which being adjacent whenever their symmetric difference is a pair of adjacent vertices in $G$. In this paper, we give a relationship between the Laplacian spectra of any two token graphs of a given graph. In particular, we show that, for any integers $h$ and $k$ such that $1\le h\le k\le \frac{n}{2}$, the Laplacian spectrum of $F_h(G)$ is contained in the Laplacian spectrum of $F_k(G)$. We also show that the double odd graphs and doubled Johnson graphs can be obtained as token graphs of the complete graph $K_n$ and the star $S_{n}=K_{1,n-1}$, respectively. Besides, we obtain a relationship between the spectra of the $k$-token graph of $G$ and the $k$-token graph of its complement $\overline{G}$. This generalizes a well-known property for Laplacian eigenvalues of graphs to token graphs. Finally, the double odd graphs and doubled Johnson graphs provide two infinite families, together with some others, in which the algebraic connectivities of the original graph and its token graph coincide. Moreover, we conjecture that this is the case for any graph $G$ and its token graph.

Let $\Gamma$ denote an undirected, connected, regular graph with vertex set $X$, adjacency matrix $A$, and ${d+1}$ distinct eigenvalues. Let ${\mathcal A}={\mathcal A}(\Gamma)$ denote the subalgebra of Mat$_X({\mathbb C})$ generated by $A$. We refer to ${\mathcal A}$ as the {\it adjacency algebra} of $\Gamma$. In this paper we investigate algebraic and combinatorial structure of $\Gamma$ for which the adjacency algebra ${\mathcal A}$ is closed under Hadamard multiplication. In particular, under this simple assumption, we show the following: (i) ${\mathcal A}$ has a standard basis $\{I,F_1,\ldots,F_d\}$; (ii) for every vertex there exists identical distance-faithful intersection diagram of $\Gamma$ with $d+1$ cells; (iii) the graph $\Gamma$ is quotient-polynomial; and (iv) if we pick $F\in \{I,F_1,\ldots,F_d\}$ then $F$ has $d+1$ distinct eigenvalues if and only if span$\{I,F_1,\ldots,F_d\}=$span$\{I,F,\ldots,F^d\}$. We describe the combinatorial structure of quotient-polynomial graphs with diameter $2$ and $4$ distinct eigenvalues. As a consequence of the technique from the paper we give an algorithm which computes the number of distinct eigenvalues of any Hermitian matrix using only elementary operations. When such a matrix is the adjacency matrix of a graph $\Gamma$, a simple variation of the algorithm allow us to decide wheter $\Gamma$ is distance-regular or not. In this context, we also propose an algorithm to find which distance-$i$ matrices are polynomial in $A$, giving also these polynomials., Comment: 22 pages plus 4 pages of references

The Mondrian problem consists of dissecting a square of side length $n\in \NN$ into non-congruent rectangles with natural length sides such that the difference $d(n)$ between the largest and the smallest areas of the rectangles partitioning the square is minimum. In this paper, we compute some bounds on $d(n)$ in terms of the number of rectangles of the square partition. These bounds provide us optimal partitions for some values of $n \in \NN$. We provide a sequence of square partitions such that $d(n)/n^2$ tends to zero for $n$ large enough. For the case of `perfect' partitions, that is, with $d(n)=0$, we show that, for any fixed powers $s_1,\ldots, s_m$, a square with side length $n=p_1^{s_1}\cdots p_m^{s_m}$, can have a perfect Mondrian partition only if $p_1$ satisfies a given lower bound. Moreover, if $n(x)$ is the number of side lengths $x$ (with $n\le x$) of squares not having a perfect partition, we prove that its `density' $\frac{n(x)}{x}$ is asymptotic to $\frac{(\log(\log(x))^2}{2\log x}$, which improves previous results.

In this paper, we deal with a simple geometric problem: Is it possible to partition a rectangle into $k$ non-congruent rectangles of equal area? This problem is motivated by the so-called `Mondrian art problem' that asks a similar question for dissections with rectangles of integer sides. Here, we generalize the Mondrian problem by allowing rectangles of real sides. In this case, we show that the minimum value of $k$ for a rectangle to have a `perfect Mondrian partition' (that is, with non-congruent equal-area rectangles) is seven. Moreover, we prove that such a partition is unique (up to symmetries) and that there exist exactly two proper perfect Mondrian partitions for $k=8$. Finally, we also prove that any square has a perfect Mondrian decomposition for $k\ge 7$.

We consider the case in which mixed graphs (with both directed and undirected edges) are Cayley graphs of Abelian groups. In this case, some Moore bounds were derived for the maximum number of vertices that such graphs can attain. We first show these bounds can be improved if we know more details about the order of some elements of the generating set. Based on these improvements, we present some new families of mixed graphs. For every fixed value of the degree, these families have an asymptotically large number of vertices as the diameter increases. In some cases, the results obtained are shown to be optimal., Comment: arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:1908.00245

The universal adjacency matrix $U$ of a graph $\Gamma$, with adjacency matrix $A$, is a linear combination of $A$, the diagonal matrix $D$ of vertex degrees, the identity matrix $I$, and the all-1 matrix $J$ with real coefficients, that is, $U=c_1 A+c_2 D+c_3 I+ c_4 J$, with $c_i\in {\mathbb R}$ and $c_1\neq 0$. Thus, as particular cases, $U$ may be the adjacency matrix, the Laplacian, the signless Laplacian, and the Seidel matrix. In this note, we show that basically the same method introduced before by the authors can be applied for determining the spectra and bases of all the corresponding eigenspaces of arbitrary lifts of graphs (regular or not)., Comment: arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:1903.10776

The $d$-Fibonacci digraphs $F(d,k)$, introduced here, have the number of vertices following generalized Fibonacci-like sequences. They can be defined both as digraphs on alphabets and as iterated line digraphs. Here we study some of their nice properties. For instance, $F(2,k)$ has diameter $d+k-2$ and is semi-pancyclic, that is, it has a cycle of every length between 1 and $\ell$, with $\ell\in\{2k-2,2k-1\}$. Moreover, it turns out that several other numbers of $F(d,k)$ (of closed $l$-walks, classes of vertices, etc.) also follow the same linear recurrences as the numbers of vertices of the $d$-Fibonacci digraphs.

Mixed graphs can be seen as digraphs that have both arcs and edges (or digons, that is, two opposite arcs). In this paper, we consider the case in which such graphs are Cayley graphs of Abelian groups. These groups can be constructed by using a generalization to $\mathbb{Z}^n$ of the concept of congruence in $\mathbb{Z}$. Here we use this approach to present some families of mixed graphs, which, for every fixed value of the degree, have an asymptotically large number of vertices as the diameter increases. In some cases, the results obtained are shown to be optimal.

The $k$-independence number of a graph is the maximum size of a set of vertices at pairwise distance greater than $k$. A graph is called $k$-partially walk-regular if the number of closed walks of a given length $l\le k$, rooted at a vertex $v$, only depends on $l$. In particular, a distance-regular graph is also $k$-partially walk-regular for any $k$. In this note, we introduce a new family of polynomials obtained from the spectrum of a graph. These polynomials, together with the interlacing technique, allow us to give tight spectral bounds on the $k$-independence number of a $k$-partially walk-regular graph. Together with some examples where the bounds are tight, we also show that the odd graph $O_{\ell}$ with $\ell$ odd has no $1$-perfect code., Comment: arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:1803.07042

In this paper, we present a method to obtain regular (or equitable) partitions of Cayley (di)graphs (that is, graphs, digraphs, or mixed graphs) of permutation groups on $n$ letters. We prove that every partition of the number $n$ gives rise to a regular partition of the Cayley graph. By using representation theory, we also obtain the complete spectra and the eigenspaces of the corresponding quotient (di)graphs. More precisely, we provide a method to find all the eigenvalues and eigenvectors of such (di)graphs, based on their irreducible representations. As examples, we apply this method to the pancake graphs $P(n)$ and to a recent known family of mixed graphs $\Gamma(d,n,r)$ (having edges with and without direction). As a byproduct, the existence of perfect codes in $P(n)$ allows us to give a lower bound for the multiplicity of its eigenvalue $-1$.

Given a regular (connected) graph $\Gamma=(X,E)$ with adjacency matrix $A$, $d+1$ distinct eigenvalues, and diameter $D$, we give a characterization of when its distance matrix $A_D$ is a polynomial in $A$, in terms of the adjacency spectrum of $\Gamma$ and the arithmetic (or harmonic) mean of the numbers of vertices at distance $\le D-1$ of every vertex. The same results is proved for any graph by using its Laplacian matrix $L$ and corresponding spectrum. When $D=d$ we reobtain the spectral excess theorem characterizing distance-regular graphs.

We describe, in a very explicit way, a method for determining the spectra and bases of all the corresponding eigenspaces of arbitrary lifts of graphs (regular or not).

In this paper, we describe a semi-discrete method for a numerical resolution of a type of partial differential equations, called the method of lines (MOL). This method is based on the discretization of all but one of the variables of the problem. We illustrate this method by solving the Laplace equation in Cartesian coordinates. We compare the concepts used by the MOL with respect to the analytical method of variable separation. We show that the results obtained with the MOL are very good approximations of the analytical solutions., Comment: in Catalonian

It is well known that, in general, part of the spectrum of a graph can be obtained from the adjacency matrix of its quotient graph given by a regular partition. In this paper, we propose a method to obtain all the spectrum, and also the local spectra, of a graph $\Gamma$ from the quotient matrices of some of its regular partitions. As examples, it is shown how to find the eigenvalues and (local) multiplicities of walk-regular, distance-regular, and distance-biregular graphs.

We present a new matrix-based approach to detect and correct gross errors in GPS geodetic control networks. The study is carried out by introducing a new matrix, whose entries are powers of a (real or complex) variable, which fully represents the network.

This paper generalizes and unifies the existing spectral bounds on the $k$-independence number of a graph, which is the maximum size of a set of vertices at pairwise distance greater than $k$. The previous bounds known in the literature follow as a corollary of the main results in this work. We show that for most cases our bounds outperform the previous known bounds. Some infinite graphs where the bounds are tight are also presented. Finally, as a byproduct, we derive some lower spectral bounds for the diameter of a graph.

We present a method to derive the complete spectrum of the lift $\Gamma^\alpha$ of a base digraph $\Gamma$, with voltage assignments on a (finite) group $G$. The method is based on assigning to $\Gamma$ a quotient-like matrix whose entries are elements of the group algebra $\mathbb{C}[G]$, which fully represents $\Gamma^{\alpha}$. This allows us to derive the eigenvectors and eigenvalues of the lift in terms of those of the base digraph and the irreducible characters of $G$. Thus, our main theorem generalize some previous results of Lov\'az and Babai concerning the spectra of Cayley digraphs.

There are many hard conjectures in graph theory, like Tutte's 5-flow conjecture, and the 5-cycle double cover conjecture, which would be true in general if they would be true for cubic graphs. Since most of them are trivially true for 3-edge-colorable cubic graphs, cubic graphs which are not 3-edge-colorable, often called {\em snarks}, play a key role in this context. Here, we survey parameters measuring how far apart a non 3-edge-colorable graph is from being 3-edge-colorable. We study their interrelation and prove some new results. Besides getting new insight into the structure of snarks, we show that such measures give partial results with respect to these important conjectures. The paper closes with a list of open problems and conjectures.

We study the relationship between two key concepts in the theory of (di)graphs: the quotient digraph, and the lift $\Gamma^{\alpha}$ of a base (voltage) digraph. These techniques contract or expand a given digraph in order to study its characteristics, or obtain more involved structures. This study is carried out by introducing a quotient-like matrix, with complex polynomial entries, which fully represents $\Gamma^{\alpha}$. In particular, such a matrix gives the quotient matrix of a regular partition of $\Gamma^{\alpha}$, and when the involved group is Abelian, it completely determines the spectrum of $\Gamma^{\alpha}$. As some examples of our techniques, we study some basic properties of the Alegre digraph. In addition we completely characterize the spectrum of a new family of digraphs, which contains the generalized Petersen graphs, and that of the Hoffman-Singleton graph.

As is well known, a graph is a mathematical object modeling the existence of a certain relation between pairs of elements of a given set. Therefore, it is not surprising that many of the first results concerning graphs made reference to relationships between people or groups of people. In this article, we comment on four results of this kind, which are related to various general theories on graphs and their applications: the Handshake lemma (related to graph colorings and Boolean algebra), a lemma on known and unknown people at a cocktail party (to Ramsey theory), a theorem on friends in common (to distance-regularity and coding theory), and Hall's Marriage theorem (to the theory of networks). These four areas of graph theory, often with problems which are easy to state but difficult to solve, are extensively developed and currently give rise to much research work. As examples of representative problems and results of these areas, which are discussed in this paper, we may cite the following: the Four Colors Theorem (4CTC), the Ramsey numbers, problems of the existence of distance-regular graphs and completely regular codes, and finally the study of topological proprieties of interconnection networks.

A geometric method for obtaining an infinite family of Cayley digraphs of constant density on finite Abelian groups is presented. The method works for any given degree and it is based on consecutive dilates of a minimum distance diagram associated with a given initial Cayley digraph. The method is used to obtain infinite families of dense or asymptotically dense Cayley digraphs. In particular, for degree $d=3$, an infinite family of maximum known density is proposed.

Mixed graphs can be seen as digraphs that have both arcs and edges (or digons, that is, two opposite arcs). In this paper, we consider the case where such graphs are bipartite. As main results, we show that in this context the Moore-like bound is attained in the case of diameter $k=3$, and that bipartite mixed graphs of diameter $k\ge 4$ do not exist.

A mixed graph $G$ can contain both (undirected) edges and arcs (directed edges). Here we derive an improved Moore-like bound for the maximum number of vertices of a mixed graph with diameter at least three. Moreover, a complete enumeration of all optimal $(1,1)$-regular mixed graphs with diameter three is presented, so proving that, in general, the proposed bound cannot be improved.

In this note we present a general approach to construct large digraphs from small ones. These are called expanded digraphs, and, as particular cases, we show the close relationship between lifted digraphs of voltage digraphs and line digraphs, which are two known ways to obtain dense digraphs. In the same context, we show the equivalence between the vertex-splitting and partial line digraph techniques. Then, we give a sufficient condition for a lifted digraph of a base line digraph to be again a line digraph. Some of the results are illustrated with two well-known families of digraphs. Namely, the De Bruijn and Kautz digraphs, where it is shown that both families can be seen as lifts of smaller De Bruijn digraphs with appropriate voltage assignments.

We study a family of graphs related to the $n$-cube. The middle cube graph of parameter $k$ is the subgraph of $Q_{2k-1}$ induced by the set of vertices whose binary representation has either $k-1$ or $k$ number of ones. The middle cube graphs can be obtained from the well-known odd graphs by doubling their vertex set. Here we study some of the properties of the middle cube graphs in the light of the theory of distance-regular graphs. In particular, we completely determine their spectra (eigenvalues and their multiplicities, and associated eigenvectors).

A mixed graph can be seen as a type of digraph containing some edges (two opposite arcs). Here we introduce the concept of sequence mixed graphs, which is a generalization of both sequence graphs and iterated line digraphs. These structures are proven to be useful in the problem of constructing dense graphs or digraphs, and this is related to the degree/diameter problem. Thus, our generalized approach gives rise to graphs that have also good ratio order/diameter. Moreover, we propose a general method for obtaining a sequence mixed digraph by identifying some vertices of a certain iterated line digraph. As a consequence, some results about distance-related parameters (mainly, the diameter and the average distance) of sequence mixed graphs are presented.

It is known that many networks modeling real-life complex systems are small-word (large local clustering and small diameter) and scale-free (power law of the degree distribution), and very often they are also hierarchical. Although most of the models are based on stochastic methods, some deterministic constructions have been recently proposed, because this allows a better computation of their properties. Here a new deterministic family of hierarchical networks is presented, which generalizes most of the previous proposals, such as the so-called binomial tree. The obtained graphs can be seen as graphs on alphabets (where vertices are labeled with words of a given alphabet, and the edges are defined by a specific rule relating different words). This allows us the characterization of their main distance-related parameters, such as the radius and the diameter. Moreover, as a by product, an efficient shortest-path local algorithm is proposed.

We study regular graphs whose distance-$2$ graph or distance-$1$-or-$2$ graph is strongly regular. We provide a characterization of such graphs $\Gamma$ (among regular graphs with few distinct eigenvalues) in terms of the spectrum and the mean number of vertices at maximal distance $d$ from every vertex, where $d+1$ is the number of different eigenvalues of $\Gamma$. This can be seen as a another version of the so-called spectral excess theorem, which characterizes in a similar way those regular graphs that are distance-regular.

As it is well known, the spectrum $ {\rm sp\,} \Gamma$ (of the adjacency matrix $A$) of a graph $\Gamma$, with $d$ distinct eigenvalues other than its spectral radius $\lambda_0$, usually provides a lot of information about the structure of $G$. Moreover, from ${\rm sp\,}\Gamma$ we can define the so-called predistance polynomials $p_0,\ldots,p_d\in {\mathbb R}_d[x]$, with ${\rm dgr\,} p_i=i$, $i=0,\ldots,d$, which are orthogonal with respect to the scalar product $\langle f, g\rangle_{\Gamma} =\frac{1}{n}{\rm tr\,}(f(A)g(A))$ and normalized in such a way that $\|p_i\|_{\Gamma}^2=p_i(\lambda_0)$. They can be seen as a generalization for any graph of the distance polynomials of a distance-regular graph. Going further, we consider the preintersection numbers $\xi_{ij}^h$ for $i,j,h\in\{0,\ldots,d\}$, which generalize the intersection numbers of a distance-regular graph, and they are the Fourier coefficients of $p_ip_j$ in terms of the basis $\{p_h\}_{0\le h\le d}$. The aim of this paper is to show that, for any graph $\Gamma$, the information contained in its spectrum, predistance polynomials, and preintersection numbers is equivalent. Also, we give some characterizations of distance-regularity which are based on the above concepts. For instance, we comment upon the so-called spectral excess theorem stating that a connected regular graph $G$ is distance-regular if and only if its spectral excess, which is the value of $p_d$ at $\lambda_0$, equals the average excess, that is, the mean of the numbers of vertices at extremal distance $d$ from every vertex.

Given a digraph $G$, we propose a new method to find the recurrence equation for the number of vertices $n_k$ of the $k$-iterated line digraph $L^k(G)$, for $k\geq0$, where $L^0(G)=G$. We obtain this result by using the minimal polynomial of a quotient digraph $\pi(G)$ of $G$. We show some examples of this method applied to the so-called cyclic Kautz, the unicyclic, and the acyclic digraphs. In the first case, our method gives the enumeration of the ternary length-2 squarefree words of any length.

A digraph $\G=(V,E)$ is a line digraph when every pair of vertices $u,v\in V$ have either equal or disjoint in-neighborhoods. When this condition only applies for vertices in a given subset (with at least two elements), we say that $\G$ is a locally line digraph. In this paper we give a new method to obtain a digraph $\G'$ cospectral with a given locally line digraph $\G$ with diameter $D$, where the diameter $D'$ of $\G'$ is in the interval $[D-1,D+1]$. In particular, when the method is applied to De Bruijn or Kautz digraphs, we obtain cospectral digraphs with the same algebraic properties that characterize the formers.