Ricci curvature, diameter and eigenvalues of amply regular graphs

Abstract: We prove a weaker version of a conjecture proposed by Qiao, Park and Koolen on diameter bounds of amply regular graphs and make new progress on Terwilliger's conjecture on finiteness of amply regular graphs. We achieve these results by a significantly improved Lin--Lu--Yau curvature estimate and new Bakry--\'Emery curvature estimates. We further discuss applications of our curvature estimates to bounding eigenvalues, isoperimetric constants, and volume growth. In particular, we obtain a volume estimate of amply regular graphs which is sharp for hypercubes.