We consider certain matrix-products where successive matrices in the product belong alternately to a particular qualitative class or its transpose. The main theorems relate structural and spectral properties of these matrix-products to the structure of underlying bipartite graphs. One consequence is a characterisation of caterpillars: a graph is a caterpillar if and only if all matrix-products associated with it have real nonnegative spectrum. Several other equivalences of this kind are proved. The work is inspired by certain questions in dynamical systems where such products arise naturally as Jacobian matrices, and the results have implications for the existence and stability of equilibria in these systems.
It is known that Θ(log n) chords must be added to an n-cycle to produce a pancyclic graph; for vertex pancyclicity, where every vertex belongs to a cycle of every length, Θ(n) chords are required. A possibly 'intermediate' variation is the following: given k, 1 ≤ k ≤ n, how many chords must be added to ensure that there exist cycles of every possible length each of which passes exactly k chords? For fixed k, we establish a lower bound of Ω n 1/k on the growth rate.
A pentagonal geometry PENT() is a partial linear space, where every line is incident with points, every point is incident with lines, and for each point , there is a line incident with precisely those points that are not collinear with . Here we generalize the concept by allowing the points not collinear with to form the point set of a Steiner system whose blocks are lines of the geometry.
A pentagonal geometry PENT(k, r) is a partial linear space, where every line is incident with k points, every point is incident with r lines, and for each point x, there is a line incident with precisely those points that are not collinear with x.Here we generalize the concept by allowing the points not collinear with x to form the point set of a Steiner system S(2, k, w) whose blocks are lines of the geometry.
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