The domination number and the least $Q$-eigenvalue

Abstract

A vertex set $D$ of a graph $G$ is said to be a dominating set if every vertex of $V(G)\setminus D$ is adjacent to at least a vertex in $D$, and the domination number $\gamma (G)$ ($\gamma$, for short) is the minimum cardinality of all dominating sets of $G$. For a graph, the least $Q$-eigenvalue is the least eigenvalue of its signless Laplacian matrix. In this paper, for a nonbipartite graph with both order $n$ and domination number $\gamma$, we show that $n\ge 3\gamma -1$, and show that it contains a unicyclic spanning subgraph with the same domination number $\gamma$. By investigating the relation between the domination number and the least $Q$-eigenvalue of a graph, we minimize the least $Q$-eigenvalue among all the nonbipartite graphs with given domination number.

13 pages, 3 figures