A spectral characterization of strongly distance-regular graphs with diameter four

Abstract: A graph $G$ with $d+1$ distinct eigenvalues is called strongly distance-regular if $G$ itself is distance-regular, and its distance-$d$ graph $G_d$ is strongly-regular. In this note we provide a spectral characterization of those distance-regular graphs with diameter $d=4$ which are strongly distance-regular. As a byproduct, it is shown that all bipartite strongly distance-regular graphs with such a diameter are antipodal.