On the spectral characterization of pineapple graphs

Abstract: The pineapple graph $K_p^q$ is obtained by appending $q$ pendant edges to a vertex of a complete graph $K_{p}$ ($q\geq 1,\ p\geq 3$). Zhang and Zhang ["Some graphs determined by their spectra", Linear Algebra and its Applications, 431 (2009) 1443-1454] claim that the pineapple graphs are determined by their adjacency spectrum. We show that their claim is false by constructing graphs which are cospectral and non-isomorphic with $K_p^q$ for every $p\geq 4$ and various values of $q$. In addition we prove that the claim is true if $q=2$, and refer to the literature for $q=1$, $p=3$, and $(p,q)=(4,3)$.