Reflective Graphs, Ollivier curvature, effective diameter, and rigidity

Abstract

We give a discrete Bonnet Myers type theorem for the effective diameter assuming positive Ollivier curvature. We prove that this diameter bound is attained if and only if the graph is a cocktail party graph, a Johnson graph, a halved cube, a Schläfli graph, a Gosset graph, or a cartesian product of the mentioned graphs with same Ollivier curvature. As a key step in the proof, we introduce the notion of reflective graphs as graphs such that for any two neighbors there exists a certain self-inverse automorphism mapping one neighbor to another. We classify these graphs as arbitrary cartesian products of the graphs mentioned before.