Arc-transitive digraphs with quasiprimitive local actions

Let Γ be a finite G-vertex-transitive digraph. The in-local action of $(\mathrm{\Gamma },G)$ is the permutation group $L_{?}$ induced by a vertex-stabiliser on the set of in-neighbours of the corresponding vertex. The out-local action$L_{+}$ is defined analogously. Note that $L_{?}$ and $L_{+}$ may not be isomorphic. We thus consider the problem of determining which pairs $(L_{?},L_{+})$ are possible. We prove some general results, but pay special attention to the case when $L_{?}$ and $L_{+}$ are both quasiprimitive. (Recall that a permutation group is quasiprimitive if each of its nontrivial normal subgroups is transitive.) Along the way, we prove a structural result about pairs of finite quasiprimitive groups of the same degree, one being (abstractly) isomorphic to a proper quotient of the other.     

Search for properties of the missing Moore graph

In the degree-diameter problem, the only extremal graph the existence of which is still in doubt is the Moore graph of order 3250, degree 57 and diameter 2. It has been known that such a graph cannot be vertex-transitive. Also, certain restrictions on the structure of the automorphism group of such a graph have been known in the case when the order of the group is even. In this paper we further investigate symmetries and structural properties of the missing Moore (57, 2)-graph(s) with the help of a combination of spectral, group-theoretic, combinatorial, and computational methods. One of the consequences is that the order of the automorphism group of such a graph is at most 375.     

Relative difference sets fixed by inversion and Cayley graphs

Using graph theoretical technique, we present a construction of a (30,2,29,14)-relative difference set fixed by inversion in the smallest finite simple group—the alternating group A₅. To our knowledge this is the first example known of relative difference sets in the finite simple groups with a non-trivial forbidden subgroup. A connection is then established between some relative difference sets fixed by inversion and certain antipodal distance-regular Cayley graphs. With the connection, several families of antipodal distance-regular Cayley graphs which are coverings of complete graphs are presented.     

Cutting up graphs

LetΓ be infinite connected graph with more than one end. It is shown that there is a subsetd ⊂V Γ which has the following properties. (i) Bothd andd*=VΓ\d are infinite. (ii) there are only finitely many edges joiningd andd*. (iii) For eachgε AutΓ at least one ofd⊂dg, d*⊂dg, d⊂d* g, d*⊂d* g holds. Any group acting on Γ has a decomposition as a free product with amalgamation or as an HNN-group.     

Semisymmetric graphs

Let be a regular covering projection of connected graphs with the group of covering transformations isomorphic to N. If N is an elementary abelian p-group, then the projection ℘_N is called p-elementary abelian. The projection ℘_N is vertex-transitive (edge-transitive) if some vertex-transitive (edge-transitive) subgroup of the automorphism group of X lifts along ℘_N, and semisymmetric if it is edge- but not vertex-transitive. The projection ℘_N is minimal semisymmetric if it cannot be written as a composition ℘_N=℘℘_M of two (nontrivial) regular covering projections, where ℘_M is semisymmetric.Malni? et al. [Semisymmetric elementary abelian covers of the Möbius-Kantor graph, Discrete Math. 307 (2007) 2156-2175] determined all pairwise nonisomorphic minimal semisymmetric elementary abelian regular covering projections of the Möbius-Kantor graph, the Generalized Petersen graph GP(8,3), by explicitly giving the corresponding voltage rules generating the covering projections. It was remarked at the end of the above paper that the covering graphs arising from these covering projections need not themselves be semisymmetric (a graph with regular valency is said to be semisymmetric if its automorphism group is edge- but not vertex-transitive). In this paper it is shown that all these covering graphs are indeed semisymmetric.     

An infinite family of tetravalent half-arc-transitive graphs

A graph is half-arc-transitive if its automorphism group acts transitively on vertices and edges, but not on arcs. In this paper, a new infinite family of tetravalent half-arc-transitive graphs with girth 4 is constructed, each of which has order 16m such that m>1 is a divisor of 2t²+2t+1 for a positive integer t and is tightly attached with attachment number 4m. The smallest graph in the family has order 80.     

Graphs whose endomorphism monoids are regular

In this paper, we give several approaches to construct new End-regular (-orthodox) graphs by means of the join and the lexicographic product of two graphs with certain conditions. In particular, the join of two connected bipartite graphs with a regular (orthodox) endomorphism monoid is explicitly described.     

The nonexistence of 8-transitive graphs

We prove that the inequalitys≦7 holds for finites-transitive graphs assuming that the list of known 2-transitive permutation groups is complete.     

Expanders In Group Algebras

Let G be a finite group and let p be a prime such that (p, |G|) = 1. We study conditions under which the Abelian group _p [G] has a few G-orbits whose union generate it as an expander (equivalently, all the discrete Fourier coefficients (in absolute value) of this generating set are bounded away uniformly from one).We prove a (nearly sharp) bound on the distribution of dimensions of irreducible representations of G which implies the existence of such expanding orbits. We further show a class of groups for which such a bound follows from the expansion properties of G. Together, these lead to a new iterative construction of expanding Cayley graphs of nearly constant degree.     

Signed permutations and the four color theorem

Let σ₁,σ₂ be two permutations in the symmetric group S_n. Among the many sequences of elementary transpositions τ₁,…,τ_r transforming σ₁ into σ₂=τ_rτ₁σ₁, some of them may be signable, a property introduced in this paper. We show that the four color theorem in graph theory is equivalent to the statement that, for any n≥2 and any σ₁,σ₂S_n, there exists at least one signable sequence of elementary transpositions from σ₁ to σ₂. This algebraic reformulation rests on a former geometric one in terms of signed diagonal flips, together with a codification of the triangulations of a convex polygon on n+2 vertices by permutations in S_n.     

On infinite tournaments with regular automorphism groups

Atournament regular representation (TRR) of an abstract groupG is a tournamentT whose automorphism group is isomorphic toG and is a regular permutation group on the vertices ofT. L. Babai and W. Imrich have shown that every finite group of odd order exceptZ ₃ ×Z ₃ admits a TRR. In the present paper we give several sufficient conditions for an infinite groupG with no element of order 2 to admit a TRR. Among these are the following: (1)G is a cyclic extension byZ of a finitely generated group; (2)G is a cyclic extension byZ _2n+1 of any group admitting a TRR; (3)G is a finitely generated abelian group; (4)G is a countably generated abelian group whose torsion subgroup is finite.     

The graph induced by affine <Emphasis Type="Italic">M</Emphasis>-flats over finite fields II

Let AG(n, F _q) be the n-dimensional affine space over F _q, where F _q is a finite field with q elements. Denote by Γ ^(m) the graph induced by m-flats of AG(n, F _q). For any two adjacent vertices E and F of is studied. In particular, sizes of maximal cliques in Γ ^(m) are determined and it is shown that Γ ^(m) is not edge-regular when m<n−1. Supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (19571024) and Hunan Provincial Department of Education (02C512).     

Minimal Bar Tableaux

Motivated by recent results of Stanley, we generalize the rank of a partition λ to the rank of a shifted partition S(λ). We show that the number of bars required in a minimal bar tableau of S(λ) is max(o, e + (ℓ(λ) mod 2)), where o and e are the number of odd and even rows of λ. As a consequence we show that the irreducible projective characters of S_n vanish on certain conjugacy classes. Another corollary is a lower bound on the degree of the terms in the expansion of Schur’s Q_λ symmetric functions in terms of the power sum symmetric functions. Received November 20, 2003     

A method of finding automorphism groups of endomorphism monoids of relational systems

For any set X and any relation ρ on X, let T(X,ρ) be the semigroup of all maps a:X→X that preserve ρ. Let S(X) be the symmetric group on X. If ρ is reflexive, the group of automorphisms of T(X,ρ) is isomorphic to N_S(X)(T(X,ρ)), the normalizer of T(X,ρ) in S(X), that is, the group of permutations on X that preserve T(X,ρ) under conjugation. The elements of N_S(X)(T(X,ρ)) have been described for the class of so-called dense relations ρ. The paper is dedicated to applications of this result.     

Explicit construction of regular graphs without small cycles

For every integerd>2 we give an explicit construction of infinitely many Cayley graphsX of degreed withn(X) vertices and girth >0.4801...(logn(X))/log (d−1)−2. This improves a result of Margulis. Dedicated to Paul Erdős on his seventieth birthday     

On automorphism groups of Cayley graphs

LetX _G,H denote the Cayley graph of a finite groupG with respect to a subsetH. It is well-known that its automorphism groupA(X_G,H) must contain the regular subgroupL _G corresponding to the set of left multiplications by elements ofG. This paper is concerned with minimizing the index [A(X_G,H)L_G] for givenG, in particular when this index is always greater than 1. IfG is abelian but not one of seven exceptional groups, then a Cayley graph ofG exists for which this index is at most 2. Nearly complete results for the generalized dicyclic groups are also obtained.     

The non-orientable genus of some metacyclic groups

We describe non-orientable, octagonal embeddings for certain 4-valent, bipartite Cayley graphs of finite metacyclic groups, and give a class of examples for which this embedding realizes the non-orientable genus of the group. This yields a construction of Cayley graphs for which is arbitrarily large, where and are the orientable genus and the non-orientable genus of the Cayley graph.Work supported in part by the Research Council of Slovenia, Yugoslavia and NSF Contract DMS-8717441.Supported by NSF Contract DMS-8601760.     

Factorial regular representation of groups in complete graphs

A necessary and sufficient condition for the group of isomorphisms involved in a factorization of a complete graph into isomorphic factors is established.