Eigenvalues of the Laplacian on the Goldberg-Coxeter constructions for $3$- and $4$-valent graphs

Abstract

We are concerned with spectral problems of the Goldberg-Coxeter construction for $3$- and $4$-valent finite graphs. The Goldberg-Coxeter constructions ${\mathrm{GC}}_{k,l}(X)$ of a finite $3$- or $4$-valent graph $X$ are considered as "subdivisions" of $X$, whose number of vertices are increasing at order $O(k^2+l^2)$, nevertheless which have bounded girth. It is shown that the first (resp. the last) $o(k^2)$ eigenvalues of the combinatorial Laplacian on ${\mathrm{GC}}_{k,0}(X)$ tend to $0$ (resp. tend to $6$ or $8$ in the $3$- or $4$-valent case, respectively) as $k$ goes to infinity. A concrete estimate for the first several eigenvalues of ${\mathrm{GC}}_{k,l}(X)$ by those of $X$ is also obtained for general $k$ and $l$. It is also shown that the specific values always appear as eigenvalues of ${\mathrm{GC}}_{2k,0}(X)$ with large multiplicities almost independently to the structure of the initial $X$. In contrast, some dependency of the graph structure of $X$ on the multiplicity of the specific values is also studied.

23 pages, 11 figures, authors' final version (to appear in The Electronic Journal of Combinatorics)