Further results on almost Moore digraphs

The nonexistence of digraphs with order equal to the Moore bound Md;k = 1+d+: : :+d k for d; k > 1 has lead to the study of the problem of the existence ofàlmost' Moore digraphs, namely digraphs with order close to the Moore bound. In 1], it was shown that almost Moore digraphs of order Md;k ? 1, degree d, diameter k (d; k 3) contain either no cycle of length k or exactly one such cycle. In this paper we shall derive some further necessary conditions for the existence of almost Moore digraphs for degree and diameter greater than 1. As a consequence, for diameter 2 and degree d, 2 d 12, we show that there are no almost Moore digraphs of order Md;2 ? 1 with one vertex in a C2 except the digraphs with every vertex in C2 .