Non-bipartite distance-regular graphs with a small smallest eigenvalue (Q2001973)

Summary: \textit{Z. Qiao} and \textit{J. Koolen} [J. Comb. Theory, Ser. A 155, 304--320 (2018; Zbl 1377.05052)] showed that for any fixed integer \(D\geqslant 3\), there are only finitely many such graphs with \(\theta_{\min}\leqslant -\alpha k\), where \(0<\alpha<1\) is any fixed number. In this paper, we will study non-bipartite distance-regular graphs with relatively small \(\theta_{\min}\) compared with \(k\). In particular, we will show that if \(\theta_{\min}\) is relatively close to \(-k\), then the odd girth \(g\) must be large. Also we will classify the non-bipartite distance-regular graphs with \(\theta_{\min} \leqslant -\frac{D-1}{D}k\) for \(D=4,5\).