Let be the adjacency matrix of a graph. Since is a regular graph of degree , every row of sums to . Therefore, for ,
so is a graph eigenvalue.
If , then the quadratic form of the graph Laplacian gives
Every summand is nonnegative, so along every edge. The graph is connected, hence all coordinates of are equal and is a scalar multiple of . Thus the -eigenspace is one-dimensional. Since is a symmetric matrix, the spectral theorem for real symmetric matrices makes it diagonalizable, so the algebraic multiplicity is also one. This proves the constant eigenvector of a regular graph result.
Spectral graph theory 2026-10-14
Spectral graph theory studies graphs through eigenvalues and eigenvectors of associated matrices, including the adjacency matrix and Laplacian matrix. A graph eigenvalue usually refers to the adjacency-matrix spectrum unless another matrix is specified.