Equitable 2-partitions of the Hamming graphs with the second eigenvalue

Abstract

The eigenvalues of the Hamming graph $H(n,q)$ are known to be $\lambda_i(n,q)=(q-1)n-qi$, $0\leq i \leq n$. The characterization of equitable 2-partitions of the Hamming graphs $H(n,q)$ with eigenvalue $\lambda_{1}(n,q)$ was obtained by Meyerowitz in [15]. We study the equitable 2-partitions of $H(n,q)$ with eigenvalue $\lambda_{2}(n,q)$. We show that these partitions are reduced to equitable 2-partitions of $H(3,q)$ with eigenvalue $\lambda_{2}(3,q)$ with exception of two constructions.