Characterization of extremal graphs from Laplacian eigenvalues and the sum of powers of the Laplacian eigenvalues of graphs.

For any real number α , let s α ( G ) denote the sum of the α th power of the non-zero Laplacian eigenvalues of a graph G . In this paper, we first obtain sharp bounds on the largest and the second smallest Laplacian eigenvalues of a graph, and a new spectral characterization of a graph from its Laplacian eigenvalues. Using these results, we then establish sharp bounds for s α ( G ) in terms of the number of vertices, number of edges, maximum vertex degree and minimum vertex degree of the graph G , from which a Nordhaus–Gaddum type result for s α is also deduced. Moreover, we characterize the graphs maximizing s α for α > 1 among all the connected graphs with given matching number. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]