5-chromatic strongly regular graphs

In this paper, we begin the determination of all primitive strongly regular graphs with chromatic number equal to 5. Using eigenvalue techniques, we show that there are at most 43 possible parameter sets for such a graph. For each parameter set, we must decide which strongly regular graphs, if any, possessing the set are 5-chromatic. In this way, we deal completely with 34 of these parameter sets using eigenvalue techniques and computer enumerations.     

A generalization of Wallis-Fon-Der-Flaass construction of strongly regular graphs

In this paper the Wallis-Fon-Der-Flaass construction of strongly regular graphs is generalized. As a result new prolific series of strongly regular graphs are obtained. Some of them have new parameters. The author was partially supported by the Israeli Ministry of Absorption.     

On a conjecture of Brouwer involving the connectivity of strongly regular graphs

In this paper, we study a conjecture of Andries E. Brouwer from 1996 regarding the minimum number of vertices of a strongly regular graph whose removal disconnects the graph into non-singleton components.We show that strongly regular graphs constructed from copolar spaces and from the more general spaces called Δ-spaces are counterexamples to Brouwer?s Conjecture. Using J.I. Hall?s characterization of finite reduced copolar spaces, we find that the triangular graphs T(m), the symplectic graphs Sp(2r,q) over the field Fq (for any q prime power), and the strongly regular graphs constructed from the hyperbolic quadrics O⁺(2r,2) and from the elliptic quadrics O⁻(2r,2) over the field F₂, respectively, are counterexamples to Brouwer?s Conjecture. For each of these graphs, we determine precisely the minimum number of vertices whose removal disconnects the graph into non-singleton components. While we are not aware of an analogue of Hall?s characterization theorem for Δ-spaces, we show that complements of the point graphs of certain finite generalized quadrangles are point graphs of Δ-spaces and thus, yield other counterexamples to Brouwer?s Conjecture.We prove that Brouwer?s Conjecture is true for many families of strongly regular graphs including the conference graphs, the generalized quadrangles GQ(q,q) graphs, the lattice graphs, the Latin square graphs, the strongly regular graphs with smallest eigenvalue −2 (except the triangular graphs) and the primitive strongly regular graphs with at most 30 vertices except for few cases.We leave as an open problem determining the best general lower bound for the minimum size of a disconnecting set of vertices of a strongly regular graph, whose removal disconnects the graph into non-singleton components.     

Ring geometries,two-weight codes,and strongly regular graphs

It is known that a projective linear two-weight code C over a finite field corresponds both to a set of points in a projective space over that meets every hyperplane in either a or b points for some integers a < b, and to a strongly regular graph whose vertices may be identified with the codewords of C. Here we extend this classical result to the case of a ring-linear code with exactly two nonzero homogeneous weights and sets of points in an associated projective ring geometry. We will introduce regular projective two-weight codes over finite Frobenius rings, we will show that such a code gives rise to a strongly regular graph, and we will give some constructions of two-weight codes using ring geometries. All these examples yield infinite families of strongly regular graphs with non-trivial parameters.      

Embedding arbitrary finite simple graphs into small strongly regular graphs

It is well known that any finite simple graph Γ is an induced subgraph of some exponentially larger strongly regular graph Γ (e.g., [2, 8]). No general polynomial‐size construction has been known. For a given finite simple graph Γ on υ vertices, we present a construction of a strongly regular graph Γ on O(υ⁴) vertices that contains Γ as its induced subgraph. A discussion is included of the size of the smallest possible strongly regular graph with this property. © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Graph Theory 34: 1–8, 2000     

Lifting constructions of strongly regular Cayley graphs

We give two “lifting” constructions of strongly regular Cayley graphs. In the first construction we “lift” a cyclotomic strongly regular graph by using a subdifference set of the Singer difference sets. The second construction uses quadratic forms over finite fields and it is a common generalization of the construction of the affine polar graphs [7] and a construction of strongly regular Cayley graphs given in [15]. The two constructions are related in the following way: the second construction can be viewed as a recursive construction, and the strongly regular Cayley graphs obtained from the first construction can serve as starters for the second construction. We also obtain association schemes from the second construction.     

Constructing few-weight linear codes and strongly regular graphs

Linear codes with few weights have applications in data storage systems, secret sharing schemes, graph theory and so on. In this paper, we construct a class of few-weight linear codes by choosing defining sets from cyclotomic classes and we also establish few-weight linear codes by employing weakly regular bent functions. Notably, we get some codes that are minimal and we also obtain a class of two-weight optimal punctured codes with respect to the Griesmer bound. Finally, we get a class of strongly regular graphs with new parameters by using the obtained two-weight linear codes.     

On quasi-strongly regular graphs

We study the quasi-strongly regular graphs, which are a combinatorial generalization of the strongly regular and the distance regular graphs. Our main focus is on quasi-strongly regular graphs of grade 2. We prove a “spectral gap”-type result for them which generalizes Seidel's well-known formula for the eigenvalues of a strongly regular graph. We also obtain a number of necessary conditions for the feasibility of parameter sets and some structural results. We propose the heuristic principle that the quasi-strongly regular graphs can be viewed as a “lower-order approximation” to the distance regular graphs. This idea is illustrated by extending a known result from the distance-regular case to the quasi-strongly regular case. Along these lines, we propose a number of conjectures and open problems. Finally, we list the all the proper connected quasi-strongly graphs of grade 2 with up to 12 vertices.     

Strongly regular graphs associated with ternary bent functions

We prove a new characterization of weakly regular ternary bent functions via partial difference sets. Partial difference sets are combinatorial objects corresponding to strongly regular graphs. Using known families of bent functions, we obtain in this way new families of strongly regular graphs, some of which were previously unknown. One of the families includes an example in [N. Hamada, T. Helleseth, A characterization of some {3v₂+v₃,3v₁+v₂,3,3}-minihypers and some [15,4,9;3]-codes with B₂=0, J. Statist. Plann. Inference 56 (1996) 129-146], which was considered to be sporadic; using our results, this strongly regular graph is now a member of an infinite family. Moreover, this paper contains a new proof that the Coulter-Matthews and ternary quadratic bent functions are weakly regular.     

Spectra of strongly Deza graphs

A Deza graph G with parameters $(n,k,b,a)$ is a k-regular graph with n vertices such that any two distinct vertices have b or a common neighbours. The children $G_A$ and $G_B$ of a Deza graph G are defined on the vertex set of G such that every two distinct vertices are adjacent in $G_A$ or $G_B$ if and only if they have a or b common neighbours, respectively. A strongly Deza graph is a Deza graph with strongly regular children. In this paper we give a spectral characterisation of strongly Deza graphs, show relationships between eigenvalues, and study strongly Deza graphs which are distance-regular.     

Chordal bipartite, strongly chordal, and strongly chordal bipartite graphs

Robert E. Jamison characterized chordal graphs by the edge set of every k-cycle being the symmetric difference of k−2 triangles. Strongly chordal (and chordal bipartite) graphs can be similarly characterized in terms of the distribution of triangles (respectively, quadrilaterals). These results motivate a definition of ‘strongly chordal bipartite graphs’, forming a class intermediate between bipartite interval graphs and chordal bipartite graphs.     

A note on regular Ramsey graphs

We prove that there is an absolute constant C>0 so that for every natural n there exists a triangle‐free regular graph with no independent set of size at least \({{C}}\sqrt{{{n}}\log{{n}}}\). © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Graph Theory 64: 244–249, 2010