A CIS graph is a graph in which every maximal stable set and every maximal clique intersect. A graph is well-covered if all its maximal stable sets are of the same size, co-well-covered if its complement is well-covered, and vertex-transitive if, for every pair of vertices, there exists an automorphism of the graph mapping one to the other. We show that a vertex-transitive graph is CIS if and only if it is well-covered, co-well-covered, and the product of its clique and stability numbers equals its order. A graph is irreducible if no two distinct vertices have the same neighborhood. We classify irreducible well-covered CIS graphs with clique number at most 3 and vertex-transitive CIS graphs of valency at most 7, which include an infinite family. We also exhibit an infinite family of vertex-transitive CIS graphs which are not Cayley.
A clique (resp., independent set) in a graph is strong if it intersects every maximal independent sets (resp., every maximal cliques). A graph is CIS if all of its maximal cliques are strong and localizable if it admits a partition of its vertex set into strong cliques. In this paper we prove that a clique $C$ in a vertex-transitive graph $Γ$ is strong if and only if $|C||I|=|V(Γ)|$ for every maximal independent set $I$ of $Γ$. Based on this result we prove that a vertex-transitive graph is CIS if and only if it admits a strong clique and a strong independent set. We classify all vertex-transi…
A graph is CIS if every maximal clique interesects every maximal stable set. Currently, no good characterization or recognition algorithm for the CIS graphs is known. We characterize graphs in which every maximal matching saturates all vertices of degree at least two and use this result to give a structural, efficiently testable characterization of claw-free CIS graphs. We answer in the negative a question of Dobson, Hujdurović, Milanič, and Verret [Vertex-transitive CIS graphs, European J. Combin. 44 (2015) 87-98] asking whether the number of vertices of every CIS graph is bounded from above …
We consider the problem of computing identifying codes of graphs and its fractional relaxation. The ratio between the size of optimal integer and fractional solutions is between 1 and 2 ln(|V|)+1 where V is the set of vertices of the graph. We focus on vertex-transitive graphs for which we can compute the exact fractional solution. There are known examples of vertex-transitive graphs that reach both bounds. We exhibit infinite families of vertex-transitive graphs with integer and fractional identifying codes of order |V|^a with a in {1/4,1/3,2/5}. These families are generalized quadrangles (st…
I describe a 27-vertex graph that is vertex-transitive and edge-transitive but not 1-transitive. Thus while all vertices and edges of this graph are similar, there are no edge-reversing automorphisms.
Partial cubes are graphs isometrically embeddable into hypercubes. In this paper it is proved that every cubic, vertex-transitive partial cube is isomorphic to one of the following graphs: $K_2 \, \square \, C_{2n}$, for some $n\geq 2$, the generalized Petersen graph $G(10,3)$, the cubic permutahedron, the truncated cuboctahedron, or the truncated icosidodecahedron. This classification is a generalization of results of Brešar et al.~from 2004 on cubic mirror graphs, it includes all cubic, distance-regular partial cubes (Weichsel, 1992), and presents a contribution to the classification of all …
The main result of this paper is that, if $Γ$ is a connected 4-valent $G$-arc-transitive graph and $v$ is a vertex of $Γ$, then either $Γ$ is one of a well understood infinite family of graphs, or $|G_v|\leq 2^43^6$ or $2|G_v|\log_2(|G_v|/2)\leq |\VΓ|$ and that this last bound is tight. As a corollary, we get a similar result for $3$-valent vertex-transitive graphs.
We study vertex-quasiprimitive $2$-arc-transitive digraphs, reducing the problem of vertex-primitive $2$-arc-transitive digraphs to almost simple groups. This includes a complete classification of vertex-quasiprimitive $2$-arc-transitive digraphs where the action on vertices has O'Nan-Scott type SD or CD.
We introduce the concept of the primitivity of independent set in vertex-transitive graphs, and investigate the relationship between the primitivity and the structure of maximum independent sets in direct products of vertex-transitive graphs. As a consequence of our main results, we positively solve an open problem related to the structure of independent sets in powers of vertex-transitive graphs.
A core of a graph X is a vertex minimal subgraph to which X admits a homomorphism. Hahn and Tardif have shown that for vertex transitive graphs, the size of the core must divide the size of the graph. This motivates the following question: when can the vertex set of a vertex transitive graph be partitioned into sets each of which induce a copy of its core? We show that normal Cayley graphs and vertex transitive graphs with cores half their size always admit such partitions. We also show that the vertex sets of vertex transitive graphs with cores less than half their size do not, in general, ha…
We introduce uniformly vertex-transitive graphs as vertex-transitive graphs satisfying a stronger condition on their automorphism groups, motivated by a problem which arises from a Sinkhorn-type algorithm. We use the derangement graph $D(Γ)$ of a given graph $Γ$ to show that the uniform vertex-transitivity of $Γ$ is equivalent to the existence of cliques of sufficient size in $D(Γ)$. Using this method, we find examples of graphs that are vertex-transitive but not uniformly vertex-transitive, settling a previously open question. Furthermore, we develop sufficient criteria for uniform vertex-tra…
We prove that every regular graph of valency at least four whose automorphism group contains a nilpotent subgroup acting transitively on the vertex set admits a nowhere-zero 3-flow.
We study $G$-vertex-primitive and $(G,s)$-arc-transitive digraphs for almost simple groups $G$ with socle $\mathrm{PSL}_n(q)$. It turns out that $s\leqslant2$ for such digraphs, which provides the first step in determining an upper bound on $s$ for all the vertex-primitive $s$-arc-transitive digraphs.
In 2017, Giudici, Li and the third author constructed the first known family of vertex-primitive $2$-arc-transitive digraphs of valency at least $2$. The smallest digraph in this family admits $\mathrm{PSL}_3(49)$ acting $2$-arc-transitively with vertex-stabilizer $\mathrm{A}_6$ and hence has $30758154560$ vertices. In this paper, we prove that this digraph is the vertex-primitive $2$-arc-transitive digraph of valency at least $2$ with fewest vertices.
We describe two similar but independently-coded computations used to construct a complete catalogue of the transitive groups of degree less than $48$, thereby verifying, unifying and extending the catalogues previously available. From this list, we construct all the vertex-transitive graphs of order less than $48$. We then present a variety of summary data regarding the transitive groups and vertex-transitive graphs, focussing on properties that seem to occur most frequently in the study of groups acting on graphs. We illustrate how such catalogues can be used, first by finding a complete list…
For any finite, undirected, non-bipartite, vertex-transitive graph, we establish an explicit lower bound for the smallest eigenvalue of its normalised adjacency operator, which depends on the graph only through its degree and its isoperimetric constant.
We prove bounds on the chromatic number $χ$ of a vertex-transitive graph in terms of its clique number $ω$ and maximum degree $Δ$. We conjecture that every vertex-transitive graph satisfies $χ\le \max \left\{ω, \left\lceil\frac{5Δ+ 3}{6}\right\rceil\right\}$ and we prove results supporting this conjecture. Finally, for vertex-transitive graphs with $Δ\ge 13$ we prove the Borodin-Kostochka conjecture, i.e., $χ\le\max\{ω,Δ-1\}$.
It is well-known that concentrators are sparse graphs of high connectivity, which play a key role in the construction of switching networks; and any semi-vertex transitive graph is isomorphic to a bi-coset graph. In this paper, we prove that random bi-coset graphs are almost always concentrators, and construct some examples of semi-vertex transitive concentrators.
We investigate the structure of a digraph having a transitive automorphism group where every cutset of minimal cardinality consists of all successors or all predecessors of some vertex. We improve most of the existing results in this area.
We generalise the standard constructions of a Cayley graph in terms of a group presentation by allowing some vertices to obey different relators than others. The resulting notion of presentation allows us to represent every vertex transitive graph. As an intermediate step, we prove that every countably infinite, connected, vertex transitive graph has a perfect matching. Incidentally, we construct an example of a 2-ended cubic vertex transitive graph which is not a Cayley graph, answering a question of Watkins from 1990.
In 1979 Babai found a clever argument to prove that every connected vertex transitive graph on $n \ge 3$ vertices contains a cycle of length at least $\sqrt{3n}$. Here we modify his approach to show that such graphs must contain a cycle of length at least $(1 - o(1))n^{3/5}$.
We study groups acting vertex-transitively on connected, trivalent graphs such that stabilizers of vertices are infinite. If the action is edge-transitive, we prove that the graph has to be a tree. We analyze the case where the action is not edge-transitive and fully classify the possible $2$-ended graphs. We draw connections to Willis' scale function and re-prove a result by Trofimov.
We observe that a ball of radius $1$ in the grandfather graph can not be realized as a ball of radius $1$ in a finite vertex transitive graph. We remark on when a ball in a finite vertex transitive graph appears as a ball in an infinite vertex transitive graph.
It has long been known that there exist finite connected tetravalent arc-transitive graphs with arbitrarily large vertex-stabilisers. However, beside a well known family of exceptional graphs, related to the lexicographic product of a cycle with an edgeless graph on two vertices, only a few such infinite families of graphs are known. In this paper, we present two more families of tetravalent arc-transitive graphs with large vertex-stabilisers, each significant for its own reason.
For a non-complete graph $Γ$, a vertex triple $(u,v,w)$ with $v$ adjacent to both $u$ and $w$ is called a $2$-geodesic if $u\neq w$ and $u,w$ are not adjacent. Then $Γ$ is said to be $2$-geodesic transitive if its automorphism group is transitive on both arcs and 2-geodesics. In previous work the author showed that if a $2$-geodesic transitive graph $Γ$ is locally disconnected and its automorphism group $\Aut(Γ)$ has a non-trivial normal subgroup which is intransitive on the vertex set of $Γ$, then $Γ$ is a cover of a smaller 2-geodesic transitive graph. Thus the `basic' graphs to study are th…
A graph is called cubic and tetravalent if all of its vertices have valency 3 and 4, respectively. It is called vertex-transitive and arc-transitive if its automorphism group acts transitively on its vertex-set and on its arc- set, respectively. In this paper, we combine some new theoretical results with computer calculations to construct all cubic vertex-transitive graphs of order at most 1280. In the process, we also construct all tetravalent arc-transitive graphs of order at most 640.
A map $X$ on a surface is called vertex-transitive if the automorphism group of $X$ acts transitively on the set of vertices of $X$. If the face-cycles at all the vertices in a map are of same type then the map is called semi-equivelar. In general, semi-equivelar maps on a surface form a bigger class than vertex-transitive maps. There are semi-equivelar toroidal maps which are not vertex-transitive. In this article, we show that semi-equivelar toroidal maps are quotients of vertex-transitive toroidal maps. More explicitly, we prove that each semi-equivelar toroidal map has a finite vertex-tran…
A connected graph whose automorphism group acts transitively on the edges and vertices, but not on the set of ordered pairs of adjacent vertices of the graph is called half-arc-transitive. It is well known that the valence of a half-arc-transitive graph is even and at least four. Several infinite families of half-arc-transitive graphs of valence four are known, however, in all except four of the known specimens, the vertex-stabiliser in the automorphism group is abelian. The first example of a half-arc-transitive graph of valence four and with a non-abelian vertex-stabiliser was described in […
A graph of order $n$ is $p$-factor-critical, where $p$ is an integer of the same parity as $n$, if the removal of any set of $p$ vertices results in a graph with a perfect matching. 1-Factor-critical graphs and 2-factor-critical graphs are factor-critical graphs and bicritical graphs, respectively. It is well known that every connected vertex-transitive graph of odd order is factor-critical and every connected non-bipartite vertex-transitive graph of even order is bicritical. In this paper, we show that a simple connected vertex-transitive graph of odd order at least 5 is 3-factor-critical if …
The distinguishing number of a graph $G$ is the smallest $k$ such that $G$ admits a $k$-colouring for which the only colour-preserving automorphism of $G$ is the identity. We determine the distinguishing number of finite $4$-valent vertex-transitive graphs. We show that, apart from one infinite family and finitely many examples, they all have distinguishing number $2$.
It is shown that there are infinitely many connected vertex-transitive graphs that have no Hamilton decomposition, including infinitely many Cayley graphs of valency 6, and including Cayley graphs of arbitrarily large valency.
Quasi-vertex-transitive maps are the homogeneous maps on the plane with finitely many vertex orbits under the action of their automorphism groups. We show that there exist quasi-vertex-transitive maps of types $[p^3, 3]$ for $p \equiv 1$ (mod $6$), but there doesn't exist vertex-transitive map of such types. In particular, we determine the surface with the lowest possible genus that admit a polyhedral map of type $[5^3, 3]$.
A step forward is made in a long standing Lovász's problem regarding hamiltonicity of vertex-transitive graphs by showing that every connected vertex-transitive graph of order a product of two primes, other than the Petersen graph, contains a Hamilton cycle. Essential tools used in the proof range from classical results on existence of Hamilton cycles, such as Chvátal's theorem and Jackson's theorem, to certain results on polynomial representations of quadratic residues at primitive roots in finite fields.
Among all equivelar vertex-transitive maps on a given closed surface S, the automorphism groups of maps with Schläfli types {3, 7} and {7, 3} allow the highest possible order. We describe a procedure to transform all such maps into 1- or 2-orbit maps, whose symmetry type has been previously studied. In so doing we provide a procedure to determine all vertex-transitive maps with Schläfli type {3, 7} which are neither regular or chiral. We determine all such maps on surfaces with Euler characteristic -1 \geq \c{hi} \geq -40.
We characterise connected cubic graphs admitting a vertex- transitive group of automorphisms with an abelian normal subgroup that is not semiregular. We illustrate the utility of this result by using it to prove that the order of a semiregular subgroup of maximum order in a vertex-transitive group of automorphisms of a connected cubic graph grows with the order of the graph.
It is shown that every connected vertex-transitive graph of order $6p$, where $p$ is a prime, contains a Hamilton path. Moreover, it is shown that, except for the truncation of the Petersen graph, every connected vertex-transitive graph of order $6p$ which is not genuinely imprimitive contains a Hamilton cycle.
Half-arc-transitive graphs are a fascinating topic which connects graph theory, Riemann surfaces and group theory. Although fruitful results have been obtained over the last half a century, it is still challenging to construct half-arc-transitive graphs with prescribed vertex stabilizers. Until recently, there have been only six known connected tetravalent half-arc-transitive graphs with nonabelian vertex stabilizers, and the question whether there exists a connected tetravalent half-arc-transitive graph with nonabelian vertex stabilizer of order $2^s$ for every $s\geqslant3$ has been wide ope…
A connected graph of order $n$ admitting a semiregular automorphism of order $n/k$ is called a $k$-multicirculant. Highly symmetric multicirculants of small valency have been extensively studied, and several classification results exist for cubic vertex- and arc-transitive multicirculants. In this paper we study the broader class of cubic vertex-transitive graphs of order $n$ admitting an automorphism of order $n/3$ or larger that may not be semiregular. In particular, we show that any such graph is either a $k$-multicirculant for some $k \leq 3$, or it belongs to an infinite family of graphs …
It is shown that every connected vertex-transitive graph of order $4p$, where $p$ is a prime, is hamiltonian with the exception of the Coxeter graph which is known to possess a Hamilton path.
We describe an algorithm for the enumeration of (candidates of) vertex-transitive combinatorial $d$-manifolds. With an implementation of our algorithm, we determine, up to combinatorial equivalence, all combinatorial manifolds with a vertex-transitive automorphism group on $n\leq 13$ vertices. With the exception of actions of groups of small order, the enumeration is extended to 14 and 15 vertices.
A finite graph is called a tricirculant if admits a cyclic group of automorphism which has precisely three orbits on the vertex-set of the graph, all of equal size. We classify all finite connected cubic vertex-transitive tricirculants. We show that except for some small exceptions of order less than 54, each of these graphs is either a prism of order 6k with k odd, a Möbius ladder, or it falls into one of two infinite families, each family containing one graph for every order of the form 6k with k odd.
Tournaments are graphs obtained by assigning a direction for every edge in an undirected complete graph. We give a formula for the number of isomorphism classes of vertex-transitive tournaments with prime order. For that, we introduce Cayley tournaments, which are special Cayley digraphs, and show that there is a one to one identification between the isomorphism classes of vertex-transitive tournaments with prime order and the isomorphism classes of Cayley tournaments with prime order.
The isomorphism problem of Cayley graphs has been well studied in the literature, such as characterizations of CI (DCI)-graphs and CI (DCI)-groups. In this paper, we generalize these to vertex-transitive graphs and establish parallel results. Some interesting vertex-transitive graphs are given, including a first example of connected symmetric non-Cayley non-GI-graph. Also, we initiate the study for GI and DGI-groups, defined analogously to the concept of CI and DCI-groups.
In this article we define a minor relation, which is stronger than the classical one, but too strong to become a well-quasi-order on the class of finite graphs. Nevertheless, with this terminology we are able to introduce a conjecture, which would imply the Lovasz conjecture and give an interesting insight on the symmetry of vertex-transitive graphs, if true. Though it could become an approach to solve the Lovasz conjecture. These ideas were first introduced by the author in his Diploma Thesis.
In this paper, we prove that the maximal order of a semiregular element in the automorphism group of a cubic vertex-transitive graph X does not tend to infinity as the number of vertices of X tends to infinity. This gives a solution (in the negative) to a conjecture of Peter Cameron, John Sheehan and the author. However, with an application of the positive solution of the restricted Burnside problem, we show that this conjecture holds true when X is either a Cayley graph or an arc-transitive graph.
Let $p$ be a prime and let $L$ be either the intransitive permutation group $C_p\times C_p$ of degree $2p$ or the transitive permutation group $C_p \wr C_2$ of degree $2p$. Let $Γ$ be a connected $G$-vertex-transitive and $G$-edge-transitive graph and let $v$ be a vertex of $Γ$. We show that if the permutation group induced by the vertex-stabiliser $G_v$ on the neighbourhood $Γ(v)$ is isomorphic to $L$ then either $|V(Γ)|\geq p|G_v|\log_p\left(|G_v|/2\right)$, or $|V(Γ)|$ is bounded by a constant depending only on $p$, or $Γ$ is a very-well understood graph. This generalises a few recent resul…
