Symmetric edge-decompositions of hypercubes

We call a set of edgesE of the n-cubeQ _n a fundamental set for Q _n if for some subgroupG of the automorphism group ofQ _n , theG-translates ofE partition the edge set ofQ _n .Q _n possesses an abundance of fundamental sets. For example, a corollary of one of our main results is that if |E| =n and the subgraph induced byE is connected, then if no three edges ofE are mutually parallel,E is a fundamental set forQ _n . The subgroupG is constructed explicitly. A connected graph onn edges can be embedded intoQ _n so that the image of its edges forms such a fundamental set if and only if each of its edges belongs to at most one cycle.We also establish a necessary condition forE to be a fundamental set. This involves a number-theoretic condition on the integersa _j (E), where for 1 j n, a _j (E) is the number of edges ofE in thej ^th direction (i.e. parallel to thej ^th coordinate axis).