On regular graphs with four distinct eigenvalues

Abstract

Let $\mathcal{G}(4,2)$ be the set of connected regular graphs with four distinct eigenvalues in which exactly two eigenvalues are simple, $\mathcal{G}(4,2,-1)$ (resp. $\mathcal{G}(4,2,0)$) the set of graphs belonging to $\mathcal{G}(4,2)$ with $-1$ (resp. $0$) as an eigenvalue, and $\mathcal{G}(4,\geq -1)$ the set of connected regular graphs with four distinct eigenvalues and second least eigenvalue not less than $-1$. In this paper, we prove the non-existence of connected graphs having four distinct eigenvalues in which at least three eigenvalues are simple, and determine all the graphs in $\mathcal{G}(4,2,-1)$. As a by-product of this work, we characterize all the graphs belonging to $\mathcal{G}(4,\geq-1)$ and $\mathcal{G}(4,2,0)$, respectively, and show that all these graphs are determined by their spectra.