Linear programming bounds for regular graphs

Abstract: Delsarte, Goethals, and Seidel (1977) used the linear programming method in order to find bounds for the size of spherical codes endowed with prescribed inner products between distinct points in the code. In this paper, we develop the linear programming method to obtain bounds for the number of vertices of connected regular graphs endowed with given distinct eigenvalues. This method is proved by some "dual" technique of the spherical case, motivated from the theory of association scheme. As an application of this bound, we prove that a connected $k$-regular graph satisfying $g>2d-1$ has the minimum second-largest eigenvalue of all $k$-regular graphs of the same size, where $d$ is the number of distinct non-trivial eigenvalues, and $g$ is the girth. The known graphs satisfying $g>2d-1$ are Moore graphs, incidence graphs of regular generalized polygons of order $(s,s)$, triangle-free strongly regular graphs, and the odd graph of degree $4$.