\(D\)-bounded distance-regular graphs (Q674630)

Let \(\Gamma\) be a distance-regular graph of diameter \(D\geq 3\). The paper gives all basic facts from the literature and all necessary notions, e.g. the notion of weak-geodetically closed subgraph of \(\Gamma\), the notion of \(D\)-bounded graph, etc. Let \(P(\Gamma)\) denote the poset the elements of which are the weak-geodetically closed subgraphs of \(\Gamma\), with partial order induced by reverse inclusion. Using \(P(\Gamma)\), the author obtains new inequalities for the intersection numbers of \(\Gamma\). Equality is obtained in each of these inequalities iff the intervals in \(P(\Gamma)\) are modular. Moreover, if we suppose that the diameter \(D\) is greater than three then equality holds. This leads to the main result of the paper: Let \(\Gamma\) denote a distance-regular graph with classical parameters \((D,b,\alpha,\beta)\) and \(D\geq 4\). Suppose that \(b<-1\), and suppose that the intersection numbers \(a_1\) and \(c_2\) satisfy \(a_1\neq 0\) and \(c_2>1\). Then \(\beta=\alpha(1+ b^D)/(1-b)\).