Real equiangular lines in dimension 18 and the Jacobi identity for complementary subgraphs

Abstract

We show that the maximum cardinality of an equiangular line system in $\mathbb R^{18}$ is at most $59$. Our proof includes a novel application of the Jacobi identity for complementary subgraphs. In particular, we show that there does not exist a graph whose adjacency matrix has characteristic polynomial $(x-22)(x-2)^{42} (x+6)^{15} (x+8)^2$.