Weak-geodetically closed subgraphs in distance-regular graphs (Q1268120)

Let \(\Gamma\) be a distance-regular graph. A subgraph \(\Omega\) of \(\Gamma\) is said to be weak-geodetically closed if for all \(x,y\in \Omega\) and all \(z\in \Gamma\), \(d(x,z)+d(z,y)\leq d(x,y)+1\) implies \(z\in \Omega\). Graph \(\Gamma\) is said to be \(i\)-bounded, when for all \(x,y\in \Gamma\) at distance \(d(x,y)\leq i\), \(x\) and \(y\) are contained in a common weak-geodetically closed subgraph of \(\Gamma\) of diameter \(d(x,y)\). The main result of this paper is Theorem 2: Let \(\Gamma\) be a \(Q\)-polynomial distance-regular graph with diameter \(D\geq 3\), and assume the intersection numbers \(c_2>1,\;a_1\neq 0\). Then the following statements are equivalent. (1) \(\Gamma\) is \(D\)-bounded. (2) \(\Gamma\) is \(2\)-bounded. (3) \(\Gamma\) has classical parameters \((D,b,\alpha,\beta)\), and either \(b<-1\) or \(\Gamma\) is a dual polar graph or a Hamming graph.