Structure of vertex-transitive graphs

Every vertex-transitive graph has a characteristic structure. The specific details of structure of a vertex-transitive graph are closely related to the configuration of the parts of any minimum separating set of that graph. It is shown for a vertex-transitive graph G that (i) the number n of isomorphic atomic parts admitted by any minimum separating set S is unique for that G; (ii) G is then isomorphic to a disjoint union of m(≥2) copies of such a set of n atomic parts together with some additional edges joining them; (iii) any minimum separating set S of G consists of the vertex set of the union of some k(≥1) copies of the set of n atomic parts; (iv) at most one nonatomic part will be admitted in conjunction with one or more atomic parts by any minimum separating set of G.This configuration of structure extends to nonatomic parts. A vertex-transitive graph G may contain a not necessarily unique minimum separating set S which admits t(≥3) nonatomic parts. Then it is shown that (i) some (t ? 1)-set of these nonatomic parts are pairwise isomorphic; (ii) if the remaining nonatomic part is nonisomorphic to the others then it contains more vertices than the other parts; (iii) G is isomorphic to a disjoint union of d(≥2) copies of the set of q(≥t ? 1) isomorphic nonatomic parts together with some additional edges joining them; (iv) a minimum separating set S consists of the vertex set of the union of some y(≥1) copies of the set of q isomorphic nonatomic parts. For the case of t = 2 non-atomic parts admitted by a minimum separating set S, counterexamples of (iii) and (iv) are given.