On graphical regular representations of direct products of groups

A given group G may or may not have the property that there exists a graph X such that the automorphism group of X is regular, as a permutation group, and isomorphic to G. Mark E. Watkins has shown that the direct product of two finite groups has this property if each factor has this property and both factors are different from the cyclic group of order 2. Later, Wilfried Imrich generalized this result to infinite groups. In this paper, a new proof of this result for finite groups is given. The proof rests heavily on the result which states that if X is a graphical regular representation of the group G, then X is not self-complementary.