A generalization of a theorem of Hoffman

In 1977, Hoffman gave a characterization of graphs with smallest eigenvalue at least $-2$. In this paper we generalize this result to graphs with smaller smallest eigenvalue. For the proof, we use a combinatorial object named Hoffman graph, introduced by Woo and Neumaier in 1995. Our result says that for every $\lambda \leq -2$, if a graph with smallest eigenvalue at least $\lambda$ satisfies some local conditions, then it is highly structured. We apply our result to graphs which are cospectral with the Hamming graph $H(3,q)$, the Johnson graph $J(v, 3)$ and the $2$-clique extension of grids, respectively.