In the usual nondegenerate convention, a strongly regular graph of order and parameters is a finite simple -regular graph with in which adjacent vertices have common neighbours and distinct nonadjacent vertices have . Its adjacency matrix of a graph obeys
For the usual nondegenerate parameters with the graph is connected, so eigenvalue has multiplicity one. On the perpendicular complement of the all-ones vector, and the possible eigenvalues are
If has multiplicity , then zero trace gives . Solving proves
The denominator is positive in this nondegenerate convention. Otherwise all eigenvalues on the all-ones complement would coincide, forcing . All off-diagonal entries would then be the same, making the graph complete or edgeless. If complete graphs are admitted with arbitrary unused , the printed claim needs qualification: with satisfies the common-neighbour conditions vacuously but makes the fraction . For complete graphs with nonzero denominator, the spectral calculation still works with an unused root of multiplicity zero.
For the triangle-free graph claim, suppose first there are at least two vertices. Nonadjacent vertices have a common neighbour, so the graph is connected. If are adjacent, put and . Every member of is nonadjacent to , and exactly two of its three common neighbours with lie in , the third being . By symmetry every member of has exactly two neighbours in . Counting these edges gives , hence . Connectivity makes the graph -regular. Counting length-two paths from a vertex to non-neighbours gives
Here , , and the larger-root multiplicity becomes . Thus is rational and therefore an integer. It is odd, , and integrality also gives . Since , one obtains , hence
The complete bipartite graph realizes : vertices in the same part have all three vertices of the other part as common neighbours, and vertices in opposite parts are adjacent. There are no triangles.
As literally worded, the one-vertex graph is a vacuous exception: it has no triangles or nonadjacent distinct pairs, but has . The displayed positive-degree classification therefore requires at least two vertices. This qualification completes the triangle-free graphs with three common neighbours argument rather than silently excluding a counterexample.