Common circulant homogeneous factorisations of the complete digraph

In this paper we determine the positive integers n and k for which there exists a homogeneous factorisation of a complete digraph on n vertices with k ‘common circulant’ factors. This means a partition of the arc set of the complete digraph K_n into k circulant factor digraphs, such that a cyclic group of order n acts regularly on the vertices of each factor digraph whilst preserving the edges, and in addition, an overgroup of this permutes the factor digraphs transitively amongst themselves. This determination generalises a previous result for self-complementary circulants.     

Analysing finite locally -arc transitive graphs

We present a new approach to analysing finite graphs which admit a vertex intransitive group of automorphisms and are either locally -arc transitive for or -locally primitive. Such graphs are bipartite with the two parts of the bipartition being the orbits of . Given a normal subgroup which is intransitive on both parts of the bipartition, we show that taking quotients with respect to the orbits of preserves both local primitivity and local -arc transitivity and leads us to study graphs where acts faithfully on both orbits and quasiprimitively on at least one. We determine the possible quasiprimitive types for in these two cases and give new constructions of examples for each possible type. The analysis raises several open problems which are discussed in the final section.

     

On Narrow Hexagonal Graphs with a 3-Homogeneous Suborbit

A connected graph of girth m 3 is called a polygonal graph if it contains a set of m-gons such that every path of length two is contained in a unique element of the set. In this paper we investigate polygonal graphs of girth 6 or more having automorphism groups which are transitive on the vertices and such that the vertex stabilizers are 3-homogeneous on adjacent vertices. We previously showed that the study of such graphs divides naturally into a number of substantial subcases. Here we analyze one of these cases and characterize the k-valent polygonal graphs of girth 6 which have automorphism groups transitive on vertices, which preserve the set of special hexagons, and which have a suborbit of size k – 1 at distance three from a given vertex.     

Imprimitive flag-transitive symmetric designs

A recent paper of O'Reilly Regueiro obtained an explicit upper bound on the number of points of a flag-transitive, point-imprimitive, symmetric design in terms of the number of blocks containing two points. We improve that upper bound and give a complete list of feasible parameter sequences for such designs for which two points lie in at most ten blocks. Classifications are available for some of these parameter sequences.     

Partition graphs for finite symmetric groups

This paper outlines an investigation of a class of arc-transitive graphs admitting a finite symmetric group S_n acting primitively on vertices, with vertex-stabilizer isomorphic to the wreath product S_m wr S_r (preserving a partition of {1,2,…n} into r parts of equal size m). Several properties of these graphs are considered, including their correspondence with r × r matrices with constant row- and column-sums equal to m, their girth, and the local action of the vertex-stabilizer. Also, it is shown that the only instance where S_n acts transitively on 2-arcs occurs in the case m = r = 2. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Graph Theory 25: 107–117, 1997     

On the distance between distinct group Latin squares

In an article in 1992, Drápal addressed the question of how far apart the multiplication tables of two groups can be? In this article we continue this investigation; in particular, we study the interaction between partial equalities in the multiplication tables of the two groups and their subgroup structure. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Combin Designs 5: 235–248, 1997