On the eigenvalues of Cayley graphs on the symmetric group generated by a complete multipartite set of transpositions

Abstract

Given a finite simple graph G with n vertices, we can construct the Cayley graph on the symmetric group Sn generated by the edges of G, interpreted as transpositions. We show that, if G is complete multipartite, the eigenvalues of the Laplacian of Cay(G) have a simple expression in terms of the irreducible characters of transpositions and of the Littlewood-Richardson coefficients. As a consequence, we can prove that the Laplacians of G and of Cay(G) have the same first nontrivial eigenvalue. This is equivalent to saying that Aldous's conjecture, asserting that the random walk and the interchange process have the same spectral gap, holds for complete multipartite graphs. © 2009 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC.