Deza graphs: a survey and new results

Abstract

In this paper we survey existing results on Deza graphs and give some new results. We present an introduction to Deza graphs for the reader who is unfamiliar with the subject, and then give an overview of some developments in the area of Deza graphs since the initial paper by five authors [M. Erickson, S. Fernando, W. H. Haemers, D. Hardy, J. Hemmeter, Deza graphs: \emph{A generalization of strongly regular graphs}, J. Comb. Designs. 7 (1999), 395--405.] was written. We then investigate 3-class cyclotomic schemes and give necessary and sufficient conditions to get a Deza graph as a graph given by one relation or the union of two relations. Finally, we prove that a strictly Deza circulant on $2p$ vertices, where $p$ is prime, is isomorphic to the lexicographical product of the Paley graph on $p$ vertices with an edge.