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The k th power of a graph G = (V, E), G k , is the graph whose vertex set is V and in which two distinct vertices are adjacent if and only if their distance in G is at most k. This article proves various eigenvalue bounds for the independence number and chromatic number of G k which purely depend on the spectrum of G, together with a method to optimize them. Our bounds for the k-independence number also work for its quantum counterpart, which is not known to be a computable parameter in general, thus justifying the use of integer programming to optimize them. Some of the bounds previously known in the literature follow as a corollary of our main results. Infinite families of graphs where the bounds are sharp are presented as well.

For k ≥ 1, the k-independence number α k of a graph is the maximum number of vertices that are mutually at distance greater than k. The well-known inertia and ratio bounds for the (1-)independence number α(= α 1 ) of a graph, due to Cvetković and Hoffman, respectively, were generalized recently for every value of k. We show that, for graphs with enough regularity, the polynomials involved in such generalizations are closely related and give exact values for α k , showing a new relationship between the inertia and ratio type bounds. Additionally, we investigate the existence and properties of the extremal case of sets of vertices that are mutually at maximum distance for walk-regular graphs. Finally, we obtain new sharp inertia and ratio type bounds for partially walk-regular graphs by using the predistance polynomials.

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A Neumaier graph is a non-complete edge-regular graph containing a regular clique. A Neumaier graph that is not strongly regular is called a strictly Neumaier graph. In this work we present a new construction of strictly Neumaier graphs, and using Jacobi sums, we show that our construction produces infinitely many instances. Moreover, we prove some necessary conditions for the existence of (strictly) Neumaier graphs that allow us to show that several parameter sets are not admissible.