Zero forcing for inertia sets


Abstract in English

Zero forcing is a combinatorial game played on a graph with a goal of turning all of the vertices of the graph black while having to use as few unforced moves as possible. This leads to a parameter known as the zero forcing number which can be used to give an upper bound for the maximum nullity of a matrix associated with the graph. We introduce a new variation on the zero forcing game which can be used to give an upper bound for the maximum nullity of a matrix associated with a graph that has $q$ negative eigenvalues. This gives some limits to the number of positive eigenvalues that such a graph can have and so can be used to form lower bounds for the inertia set of a graph.

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