  Network representations are useful for describing the structure of a large
variety of complex systems. Although most studies of real-world networks
suppose that nodes are connected by only a single type of edge, most natural
and engineered systems include multiple subsystems and layers of connectivity.
This new paradigm has attracted a great deal of attention and one fundamental
challenge is to characterize multilayer networks both structurally and
dynamically. One way to address this question is to study the spectral
properties of such networks. Here, we apply the framework of graph quotients,
which occurs naturally in this context, and the associated eigenvalue
interlacing results, to the adjacency and Laplacian matrices of undirected
multilayer networks. Specifically, we describe relationships between the
eigenvalue spectra of multilayer networks and their two most natural quotients,
the network of layers and the aggregate network, and show the dynamical
implications of working with either of the two simplified representations. Our
work thus contributes in particular to the study of dynamical processes whose
critical properties are determined by the spectral properties of the underlying
network.
