Extremal Graphs for the Energy-Independence Number Inequality

Abstract

For a graph $G$ of order $n$, let $\mathcal E(G)$ denote its adjacency energy and let $\alpha(G)$ denote its independence number. A recent theorem of Kumar and Pragada states that $$\mathcal E(G)\ge 2\bigl(n-\alpha(G)\bigr).$$ We determine all graphs attaining equality. More precisely, equality holds if and only if every connected component of $G$ is an isolated vertex, a balanced complete multipartite graph, or a graph obtained by taking the disjoint union of $K_{a,\ldots,a}$ and $K_{b,\ldots,b}$, with the same number $r\ge3$ of parts, and then completely joining corresponding parts.