Unimodular Bicyclic Graphs

Abstract

Let $G$ be a simple undirected graph with adjacency matrix $A(G)$. A graph $G$ is said to be \emph{unimodular} if $\det A(G)\in\{-1,1\}$. A connected graph with $m$ vertices and $m+k-1$ edges is called \emph{$k$-cyclic}; in particular, a bicyclic graph has $m$ vertices and $m+1$ edges. Unimodular unicyclic graphs have been completely characterized. In this paper, we investigate the corresponding problem for bicyclic graphs. We provide a complete characterization of unimodular bicyclic graphs and determine all possible values of $\det A(G)$ for a bicyclic graph $G$. Our study is motivated by the central role of unimodular graphs in the theory of graph inverses and their connections with eigenvalue reciprocity and other spectral properties of graphs.