Cographs: Eigenvalues and Dilworth Number

Abstract

A cograph is a simple graph which contains no path on 4 vertices as an induced subgraph. The vicinal preorder on the vertex set of a graph is defined in terms of inclusions among the neighborhoods of vertices. The minimum number of chains with respect to the vicinal preorder required to cover the vertex set of a graph $G$ is called the Dilworth number of $G$. We prove that for any cograph $G$, the multiplicity of any eigenvalue $\lambda\ne0,-1$, does not exceed the Dilworth number of $G$ and show that this bound is tight. G. F. Royle [The rank of a cograph, Electron. J. Combin. 10 (2003), Note 11] proved that if a cograph $G$ has no pair of vertices with the same neighborhood, then $G$ has no 0 eigenvalue, and asked if beside cographs, there are any other natural classes of graphs for which this property holds. We give a partial answer to this question by showing that an $H$-free family of graphs has this property if and only if it is a subclass of the family of cographs. A similar result is also shown to hold for the $-1$ eigenvalue.