Two families of circulant nut graphs

TL;DR

This paper constructs two new families of circulant nut graphs, extending known results and fully resolving the existence problem for odd t, while partially addressing it for even t, by defining specific generator sets and proving their nut graph properties.

Contribution

It introduces two new families of circulant nut graphs with explicit generator sets, advancing the understanding of their existence for various degrees and orders.

Findings

Constructed families cover all odd t cases.

Proved these graphs are indeed nut graphs.

Resolved the existence problem for odd t, partial for even t.

Abstract

A circulant nut graph is a non-trivial simple graph whose adjacency matrix is a circulant matrix of nullity one such that its non-zero null space vectors have no zero elements. The study of circulant nut graphs was originally initiated by Ba\v{s}i\'c et al. [Art Discrete Appl. Math. 5(2) (2021) #P2.01], where a conjecture was made regarding the existence of all the possible pairs $(n, d)$ for which there exists a $d$-regular circulant nut graph of order $n$. Later on, it was proved by Damnjanovi\'c and Stevanovi\'c [Linear Algebra Appl. 633 (2022) 127-151] that for each odd $t \ge 3$ such that $t\not\equiv_{10}1$ and $t\not\equiv_{18}15$, the $4t$-regular circulant graph of order $n$ with the generator set $\{ 1, 2, 3, \ldots, 2t+1 \} \setminus \{t\})$ must necessarily be a nut graph for each even $n \ge 4t + 4$. In this paper, we extend these results by constructing two families of circulant nut graphs. The first family comprises the $4t$-regular circulant graphs of order $n$ which correspond to the generator sets $\{1, 2, \ldots, t-1\} \cup \left\{\frac{n}{4}, \frac{n}{4} + 1 \right\} \cup \left\{\frac{n}{2} - (t-1), \ldots, \frac{n}{2} - 2, \frac{n}{2} - 1 \right\}$, for each odd $t \in \mathbb{N}$ and $n \ge 4t + 4$ divisible by four. The second family consists of the $4t$-regular circulant graphs of order $n$ which correspond to the generator sets $\{1, 2, \ldots, t-1\} \cup \left\{\frac{n+2}{4}, \frac{n+6}{4} \right\} \cup \left\{\frac{n}{2} - (t-1), \ldots, \frac{n}{2} - 2, \frac{n}{2}-1 \right\}$, for each $t \in \mathbb{N}$ and $n \ge 4t + 6$ such that $n \equiv_{4} 2$. We prove that all of the graphs which belong to these families are indeed nut graphs, thereby fully resolving the $4t$-regular circulant nut graph order-degree existence problem whenever $t$ is odd and partially solving this problem for even values of $t$ as well.