In graph theory, a strongly regular graph (SRG) is defined as follows. Let G = (V, E) be a regular graph with v vertices and degree k. G is said to be strongly regular if there are also integers λ and μ such that:
Every two adjacent vertices have λ common neighbours.
Every two non-adjacent vertices have μ common neighbours.
The complement of an srg(v, k, λ, μ) is also strongly regular. It is a srg(v, v − k − 1, v − 2 − 2k + μ, v − 2k + λ).
A strongly regular graph is a distance-regular graph with diameter 2 whenever μ is non-zero. It is a locally linear graph whenever λ = 1.
A strongly regular graph is denoted an srg(v, k, λ, μ) in the literature. By convention, graphs which satisfy the definition trivially are excluded from detailed studies and lists of strongly regular graphs. These include the disjoint union of one or more equal-sized complete graphs, and their complements, the complete multipartite graphs with equal-sized independent sets.
Andries Brouwer and Hendrik van Maldeghem (see #References) use an alternate but fully equivalent definition of a strongly regular graph based on spectral graph theory: a strongly regular graph is a finite regular graph that has exactly three eigenvalues, only one of which is equal to the degree k, of multiplicity 1. This automatically rules out fully connected graphs (which have only two distinct eigenvalues, not three) and disconnected graphs (whose multiplicity of the degree k is equal to the number of different connected components, which would therefore exceed one). Much of the literature, including Brouwer, refer to the larger eigenvalue as r (with multiplicty f) and the smaller one as s (with multiplicity g).
Strongly regular graphs were introduced by R.C. Bose in 1963. They built upon earlier work in the 1950s in the then-new field of spectral graph theory.
The cycle of length 5 is an srg(5, 2, 0, 1).
The Petersen graph is an srg(10, 3, 0, 1).
The Clebsch graph is an srg(16, 5, 0, 2).
The Shrikhande graph is an srg(16, 6, 2, 2) which is not a distance-transitive graph.