Quantitative Obata's theorem in discrete setting

Abstract

Under mild assumptions, we show that a connected weighted graph $G$ with lower Ricci curvature bound $K>0$ in the sense of Bakry-\'Emery and the $d$-th non-zero Laplacian eigenvalue $\lambda_d$ close to $K$, with $d$ being the maximal combinatorial vertex degree of $G$, has an underlying combinatorial structure of the $d$-dimensional hypercube graph. Moreover, such a graph $G$ is close in terms of Frobenius distance to a properly weighted hypercube graph. Furthermore, we establish their closeness in terms of eigenfunctions. Our results can be viewed as discrete analogies of the almost rigidity theorem and quantitative Obata's theorem on Rimennian manifolds.