Small regular graphs of girth 7 (Q2517652)

Summary: In this paper, we construct new infinite families of regular graphs of girth 7 of smallest order known so far. Our constructions are based on combinatorial and geometric properties of \((q+1,8)\)-cages, for \(q\) a prime power. We remove vertices from such cages and add matchings among the vertices of minimum degree to achieve regularity in the new graphs. We obtain \((q+1)\)-regular graphs of girth 7 and order \(2q^3+q^2+2q\) for each even prime power \(q \geq 4\), and of order \(2q^3+2q^2-q+1\) for each odd prime power \(q\geqslant 5\).