On the genus of the semidirect product of ℤ9 by ℤ3

We show that the non-commutative semidirect product Γ of ?₉ by ?₃ has orientable genus 4. In other words, some Cayley graph of Γ embeds in an orientable surface of genus 4 (Euler characteristic ?6), but no Cayley graph of Γ embeds in an orientable surface of genus less than 4 (Euler characteristic greater than ?6). We also show that some Cayley graph of Γ embeds in a (non-orientable) surface of Euler characteristic ?3, but no Cayley graph of Γ embeds in a surface of Euler characteristic greater than ?3. Γ is the first known example of a group whose orientable Euler characteristic and non-orientable Euler characteristic differ by more than 1. Our results also complete the determination of the orientable genus of each group of order less than 32.