The spectral excess theorem for distance-regular graphs having distance-d graph with fewer distinct eigenvalues

The final publication is available at Springer via http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10801-015-0654-6Let Gamma be a distance-regular graph with diameter d and Kneser graph K = Gamma(d), the distance-d graph of Gamma. We say that Gamma is partially antipodal when K has fewer distinct eigenvalues than Gamma. In particular, this is the case of antipodal distance-regular graphs (K with only two distinct eigenvalues) and the so-called half-antipodal distance-regular graphs (K with only one negative eigenvalue). We provide a characterization of partially antipodal distance-regular graphs (among regular graphs with d + 1 distinct eigenvalues) in terms of the spectrum and the mean number of vertices at maximal distance d from every vertex. This can be seen as a more general version of the so-called spectral excess theorem, which allows us to characterize those distance-regular graphs which are half-antipodal, antipodal, bipartite, or with Kneser graph being strongly regular.Peer Reviewe