Distance-regular graphs are a key concept in Algebraic Combinatorics and have given rise to several generalizations, such as association schemes. Motivated by spectral and other algebraic characterizations of distance-regular graphs, we study `almost distance-regular graphs'. We use this name informally for graphs that share some regularity properties that are related to distance in the graph. For example, a known characterization of a distance-regular graph is the invariance of the number of walks of given length between vertices at a given distance, while a graph is called walk-regular if the number of closed walks of given length rooted at any given vertex is a constant. One of the concepts studied here is a generalization of both distance-regularity and walk-regularity called $m$-walk-regularity. Another studied concept is that of $m$-partial distance-regularity or, informally, distance-regularity up to distance $m$. Using eigenvalues of graphs and the predistance polynomials, we discuss and relate these and other concepts of almost distance-regularity, such as their common generalization of $(\ell,m)$-walk-regularity. We introduce the concepts of punctual distance-regularity and punctual walk-regularity as a fundament upon which almost distance-regular graphs are built. We provide examples that are mostly taken from the Foster census, a collection of symmetric cubic graphs. Two problems are posed that are related to the question of when almost distance-regular becomes whole distance-regular. We also give several characterizations of punctually distance-regular graphs that are generalizations of the spectral excess theorem.
An internal partition of a graph is a partitioning of the vertex set into two parts such that for every vertex, at least half of its neighbors are on its side. We prove that for every positive integer $r$, asymptotically almost every $2r$-regular graph has an internal partition.
In 2006, Barat and Thomassen conjectured in 2006 that the edges of every planar 4-regular 4-edge-connected graph can be decomposed into copies of the star with 3 leaves. Shortly afterward, Lai constructed a counterexample to this conjecture. Using the small subgraph conditioning method of Robinson and Wormald, we prove that a random 4-regular graph has an $S_3$-decomposition asymptotically almost surely, provided the number of vertices is divisible by 3.
The well-known 1-2-3 Conjecture asserts that the edges of every graph without isolated edges can be weighted with $1$, $2$ and $3$ so that adjacent vertices receive distinct weighted degrees. This is open in general, while it is known to be possible from the weight set $\{1,2,3,4,5\}$. We show that for regular graphs it is sufficient to use weights $1$, $2$, $3$, $4$. Moreover, we prove the conjecture to hold for every $d$-regular graph with $d\geq 10^8$.
A weakly distance-regular digraph is thick if its attached scheme is regular. In this paper, we show that each commutative thick weakly distance-regular digraph has a thick weakly distance-regular subdigraph such that the corresponding quotient digraph falls into six families of thick weakly distance-regular digraphs up to isomorphism.
This paper outlines a method to determine whether two label-regular directed trees, are isomorphic and when they are almost isomorphic. The approach involves reinterpreting label-regular directed trees as universal covers of rooted graphs. This allows us associate a unique graph with each isomorphism class of a label-regular directed tree. Additionally, by examining the graph monoid we can verify when two unfolding graphs produce almost isomorphic unfolding trees, thereby classifying unfolding trees up to almost isomorphism.
Let $Γ$ denote a bipartite graph with vertex set $X$, color partitions $Y$, $Y'$, and assume that every vertex in $Y$ has eccentricity $D\ge 3$. For $z\in X$ and a non-negative integer $i$, let $Γ_{i}(z)$ denote the set of vertices in $X$ that are at distance $i$ from $z$. Graph $Γ$ is almost $2$-$Y$-homogeneous whenever for all $i \; (1\leq i \leq D-2)$ and for all $x\in Y$, $y \in Γ_2(x)$ and $z \in Γ_{i}(x)\capΓ_i(y)$, the number of common neighbours of $x$ and $y$ which are at distance $i-1$ from $z$ is independent of the choice of $x$, $y$ and $z$. In addition, if the above condition hold…
The characterization of distance-regular Cayley graphs originated from the problem of identifying strongly regular Cayley graphs, or equivalently, regular partial difference sets. In this paper, a classification of distance-regular Cayley graphs on dicyclic groups is obtained. More specifically, it is shown that every distance-regular Cayley graph on a dicyclic group is a complete graph, a complete multipartite graph, or a non-antipodal bipartite distance-regular graph with diameter $3$ satisfying some additional conditions.
We study regular graphs whose distance-$2$ graph or distance-$1$-or-$2$ graph is strongly regular. We provide a characterization of such graphs $Γ$ (among regular graphs with few distinct eigenvalues) in terms of the spectrum and the mean number of vertices at maximal distance $d$ from every vertex, where $d+1$ is the number of different eigenvalues of $Γ$. This can be seen as a another version of the so-called spectral excess theorem, which characterizes in a similar way those regular graphs that are distance-regular.
The automorphism group of a map acts naturally on its flags (triples of incident vertices, edges, and faces). An Archimedean map on the torus is called almost regular if it has as few flag orbits as possible for its type; for example, a map of type $(4.8^2)$ is called almost regular if it has exactly three flag orbits. Given a map of a certain type, we will consider other more symmetric maps that cover it. In this paper, we prove that each Archimedean toroidal map has a unique minimal almost regular cover. By using the Gaussian and Eisenstein integers, along with previous results regarding equ…
In this paper, we study the problem that which of distance-regular graphs admit a perfect $1$-code. Among other results, we characterize distance-regular line graphs which admit a perfect $1$-code. Moreover, we characterize all known distance-regular graphs with small valency at most $4$, the distance-regular graphs with known putative intersection arrays for valency $5$, and all distance-regular graphs with girth $3$ and valency $6$ or $7$ which admit a perfect $1$-code.
This is a survey of distance-regular graphs. We present an introduction to distance-regular graphs for the reader who is unfamiliar with the subject, and then give an overview of some developments in the area of distance-regular graphs since the monograph 'BCN' [Brouwer, A.E., Cohen, A.M., Neumaier, A., Distance-Regular Graphs, Springer-Verlag, Berlin, 1989] was written.
In this paper, we study self-complementary distance-regular Cayley graphs over abelian groups. We prove that if a regular graph is self-complementary distance-regular, then it is self-complementary strongly regular. We also deal with self-complementary strongly regular Cayley graphs over abelian groups and give an example of a self-complementary strongly regular Cayley graph over a non-elementary abelian group.
It is known that, up to isomorphism, there is a unique distance-regular graph $Δ$ with intersection array {32,27;1,12} (equivalently, $Δ$ is the unique strongly regular graph with parameters (105,32,4,12)). Here we investigate the distance-regular antipodal covers of $Δ$. We show that, up to isomorphism, there is just one distance-regular antipodal triple cover of $Δ$ (a graph $\hatΔ$ discovered by the author over twenty years ago), proving that there is a unique distance-regular graph with intersection array {32,27,8,1;1,4,27,32}. In the process, we confirm an unpublished result of Steve Lint…
In this paper, we study commutative weakly distance-regular digraphs whose attached association schemes are regular, and give a characterization of mixed arcs. As an application, we classify such digraphs of diameter 2.
We classify certain non-symmetric commutative association schemes. As an application, we determine all the primitive weakly distance-regular circulant digraphs.
The Cheeger constant of a graph is the smallest possible ratio between the size of a subgraph and the size of its boundary. It is well known that this constant must be at least $\frac{λ_1}{2}$, where $λ_1$ is the smallest positive eigenvalue of the Laplacian matrix. The subject of this paper is a conjecture of the authors that for distance-regular graphs the Cheeger constant is at most $λ_1$. In particular, we prove the conjecture for the known infinite families of distance-regular graphs, distance-regular graphs of diameter 2 (the strongly regular graphs), several classes of imprimitive dista…
In 2008, Vallentin made a conjecture involving the least distortion of an embedding of a distance-regular graph into Euclidean space. Vallentin's conjecture implies that for a least distortion Euclidean embedding of a distance-regular graph of diameter $d$, the most contracted pairs of vertices are those at distance $d$. In this paper, we confirm Vallentin's conjecture for several families of distance-regular graphs. We also provide counterexamples to this conjecture, where the largest contraction occurs between pairs of vertices at distance $d{-}1$. We suggest three alternative conjectures an…
We consider the problem of which distance-regular graphs with small valency are Cayley graphs. We determine the distance-regular Cayley graphs with valency at most $4$, the Cayley graphs among the distance-regular graphs with known putative intersection arrays for valency $5$, and the Cayley graphs among all distance-regular graphs with girth $3$ and valency $6$ or $7$. We obtain that the incidence graphs of Desarguesian affine planes minus a parallel class of lines are Cayley graphs. We show that the incidence graphs of the known generalized hexagons are not Cayley graphs, and neither are som…
