Leaves in representation diagrams of bipartite distance-regular graphs (Q1426829)

A distance-regular graph \(\Gamma\) with diameter \(D\geq 3\) and Krein parameters \(q^h_{ij}\) is considered. Pick an integer \(h\) (\(1\leq h\leq D-1\)). The representation diagram \(\Delta=\Delta_h\) is the graph with vertices \(0,...,D\) and \(i,j\) are adjacent in \(\Delta\) whenever \(i\neq j\) and \(q^h_{ij}\neq 0\). It turns out that the vertex \(0\) is adjacent only to \(h\) and the vertex \(D\) is adjacent only to \(D-h\). 0 and \(D\) are called trivial vertices of \(\Delta\). Let \(l\in \Delta\). It turns out that \(l\) is adjacent to at least one vertex of \(\Delta\). We say \(l\) is a leaf whenever \(l\) is adjacent to exactly one vertex of \(\Delta\). Theorem 1.1. Let \(\Gamma\) be a bipartite distance-regular graph with diameter \(D\geq 3\) and valency \(k\geq 3\). Pick an integer \(h\) (\(1\leq h\leq D-1\)). The representation diagram \(\Delta_h\) has a nontrivial leaf if and only if \(\Delta_h\) is the disjoint union of two paths. Hypercubes and doubled odd graphs have representation diagrams satisfying the conditions of Theorem 1.1.