The perturbed Laplacian matrix of a graph

Abstract

For a graph G, we define its perturbed Laplacian matrix as D-A(G) where A(G) is the adjacency matrix of G and D is an arbitrary diagonal matrix. Both the Laplacian matrix and the negative of the adjacency matrix are special instances of the perturbed Laplacian. Several well-known results, contained in the classical work of Fiedler and in more recent contributions of other authors are shown to be true, with suitable modifications, for the perturbed Laplacian. An appropriate generalization of the monotonicity property of a Fiedler vector for a tree is obtained. Some of the results are applied to interval graphs.