On the α-spectral radius of graphs

For 0 ? ? ? 1, Nikiforov proposed to study the spectral properties of the family of matrices A?(G) = ?D(G)+(1 ? ?)A(G) of a graph G, where D(G) is the degree diagonal matrix and A(G) is the adjacency matrix of G. The ?-spectral radius of G is the largest eigenvalue of A?(G). For a graph with two pendant paths at a vertex or at two adjacent vertices, we prove results concerning the behavior of the ?-spectral radius under relocation of a pendant edge in a pendant path. We give upper bounds for the ?-spectral radius for unicyclic graphs G with maximum degree ? ? 2, connected irregular graphs with given maximum degree and some other graph parameters, and graphs with given domination number, respectively. We determine the unique tree with the second largest ?-spectral radius among trees, and the unique tree with the largest ?-spectral radius among trees with given diameter. We also determine the unique graphs so that the difference between the maximum degree and the ?-spectral radius is maximum among trees, unicyclic graphs and non-bipartite graphs, respectively.