Graph theory is an important branch of contemporary combinatorial mathematics. By describing recent results in algebraic graph theory and demonstrating how linear algebra can be used to tackle graph-theoretical problems, the authors provide new techniques for specialists in graph theory. The book explains how the spectral theory of finite graphs can be strengthened by exploiting properties of the eigenspaces of adjacency matrices associated with a graph. The extension of spectral techniques proceeds at three levels: using eigenvectors associated with an arbitrary labeling of graph vertices,...

Unlike most elementary books on matrices, A Combinatorial Approach to Matrix Theory and Its Applications employs combinatorial and graph-theoretical tools to develop basic theorems of matrix theory, shedding new light on the subject by exploring the connections of these tools to matrices.

After reviewing the basics of graph theory, elementary counting formulas, fields, and vector spaces, the book explains the algebra of matrices and uses the Konig digraph to carry out simple matrix operations. It then discusses matrix powers, provides a graph-theoretical definition of the...

Graph theory is an important branch of contemporary combinatorial mathematics. By describing recent results in algebraic graph theory and demonstrating how linear algebra can be used to tackle graph-theoretical problems, the authors provide new techniques for specialists in graph theory. The book explains how the spectral theory of finite graphs can be strengthened by exploiting properties of the eigenspaces of adjacency matrices associated with a graph. The extension of spectral techniques proceeds at three levels: using eigenvectors associated with an arbitrary labeling of graph vertices,...