A higher-connectivity spectral Ore theorem for triangle-free graphs

Abstract

Let $B_{n,k}$ be the graph obtained from the balanced complete bipartite graph on $n$ vertices by deleting a matching of size $k$. If $G$ is an $n$-vertex triangle-free graph with $κ(\comp G)\geq k$, we prove that $\rhoA(G)\leq\rhoA(B_{n,k})$ for $n\geq4k+2$, with equality precisely when $G\cong B_{n,k}$, and we compute $\rhoA(B_{n,k})$ explicitly. We also solve the bipartite problem for every $n\geq2k+1$, determine the boundary value $\operatorname{spex}_κ(2k,K_3;k)=k-1$, and settle the full problem for $k=2$. In particular, $B_{n,2}$ is uniquely extremal exactly from order $6$ onward. For $k=1$, equivalently when the complement is connected, $B_{n,1}=K_{\ceil{n/2},\floor{n/2}}-e$ is uniquely extremal for every $n\geq3$.