In 2011, Fang et al. in (J. Combin. Theory A 118 (2011) 1039-1051) posed the following problem: Classify non-normal locally primitive Cayley graphs of finite simple groups of valency $d$, where either $d\leq 20$ or $d$ is a prime number. The only case for which the complete solution of this problem is known is of $d=3$. Except this, a lot of efforts have been made to attack this problem by considering the following problem: Characterize finite nonabelian simple groups which admit non-normal locally primitive Cayley graphs of certain valency $d\geq4$. Even for this problem, it was only solved for the cases when either $d\leq 5$ or $d=7$ and the vertex stabilizer is solvable. In this paper, we make crucial progress towards the above problems by completely solving the second problem for the case when $d\geq 11$ is a prime and the vertex stabilizer is solvable.
We consider the problem of which distance-regular graphs with small valency are Cayley graphs. We determine the distance-regular Cayley graphs with valency at most $4$, the Cayley graphs among the distance-regular graphs with known putative intersection arrays for valency $5$, and the Cayley graphs among all distance-regular graphs with girth $3$ and valency $6$ or $7$. We obtain that the incidence graphs of Desarguesian affine planes minus a parallel class of lines are Cayley graphs. We show that the incidence graphs of the known generalized hexagons are not Cayley graphs, and neither are som…
A finite group $G$ is called Cayley integral if all undirected Cayley graphs over $G$ are integral, i.e., all eigenvalues of the graphs are integers. The Cayley integral groups have been determined by Kloster and Sander in the abelian case, and by Abdollahi and Jazaeri, and independently by Ahmady, Bell and Mohar in the non-abelian case. In this paper we generalize this class of groups by introducing the class $\mathcal{G}_k$ of finite groups $G$ for which all graphs $\mathrm{Cay}(G,S)$ are integral if $|S| \le k$. It will be proved that $\mathcal{G}_k$ consists of the Cayley integral groups i…
We construct a connected cubic nonnormal Cayley graph on $\mathrm{A}_{2^m-1}$ for each integer $m\geqslant4$ and determine its full automorphism group. This is the first infinite family of connected cubic nonnormal Cayley graphs on nonabelian simple groups.
A graph $\Ga=(V,E)$ is called a Cayley graph of some group $T$ if the automorphism group $\Aut(\Ga)$ contains a subgroup $T$ which acts on regularly on $V$. If the subgroup $T$ is normal in $\Aut(\Ga)$ then $\Ga$ is called a normal Cayley graph of $T$. Let $r$ be an odd prime. Fang et al. \cite{FMW} proved that, with a finite number of exceptions for finite simple group $T$, every connected symmetric Cayley graph of $T$ of valency $r$ is normal. In this paper, employing maximal factorizations of finite almost simple groups, we work out a possible list of those exceptions for $T$.
In this paper, we study arc-transitive Cayley graphs on non-abelian simple groups with soluble stabilizers and valency seven. Let $\Ga$ be such a Cayley graph on a non-abelian simple group $T$. It is proved that either $\Ga$ is a normal Cayley graph or $\Ga$ is $S$-arc-transitive, with $(S,T)=(\A_n,\A_{n-1})$ and $n=7,21,63$ or $84$; and, for each of these four values of $n$, there really exists arc-transitive $7$-valent non-normal Cayley graphs on $\A_{n-1}$ and specific examples are constructed.
Tutte's 3-flow conjecture asserts that every $4$-edge-connected graph admits a nowhere-zero $3$-flow. We prove that this conjecture is true for every Cayley graph of valency at least four on any supersolvable group with a noncyclic Sylow $2$-subgroup and every Cayley graph of valency at least four on any group whose derived subgroup is of square-free order.
Recently, Huang gave a very elegant proof of the Sensitivity Conjecture by proving that hypercube graphs have the following property: every induced subgraph on a set of more than half its vertices has maximum degree at least $\sqrt{d}$, where $d$ is the valency of the hypercube. This was generalised by Alon and Zheng who proved that every Cayley graph on an elementary abelian $2$-group has the same property. Very recently, Potechin and Tsang proved an analogous results for Cayley graphs on abelian groups. They also conjectured that all Cayley graphs have the analogous property. We disprove thi…
A Cayley graph $\Ga=\Cay(G,S)$ is said to be normal if $G$ is normal in $\Aut\Ga$. The concept of normal Cayley graphs was first proposed by M.Y.Xu in [Discrete Math. 182, 309-319, 1998] and it plays an important role in determining the full automorphism groups of Cayley graphs. In this paper, we investigate the normality problem of the connected arc-transitive pentavalent Cayley graphs with soluble vertex stabilizer on finite nonabelian simple groups. We prove that all such graphs $\Ga$ are either normal or $G=\A_{39}$ or $\A_{79}$. Further, a connected arc-transitive pentavalent Cayley graph…
Let $G$ be a group and let $S$ be an inverse-closed and identity-free generating set of $G$. The \emph{Cayley graph} $\Cay(G,S)$ has vertex-set $G$ and two vertices $u$ and $v$ are adjacent if and only if $uv^{-1}\in S$. Let $CAY_d(n)$ be the number of isomorphism classes of $d$-valent Cayley graphs of order at most $n$. We show that $\log(CAY_d(n))\inΘ(d(\log n)^2)$, as $n\to\infty$. We also obtain some stronger results in the case $d=3$.
An interesting fact is that most of the known connected $2$-arc-transitive nonnormal Cayley graphs of small valency on finite simple groups are $(\mathrm{A}_{n+1},2)$-arc-transitive Cayley graphs on $\mathrm{A}_n$. This motivates the study of $2$-arc-transitive Cayley graphs on $\mathrm{A}_n$ for arbitrary valency. In this paper, we characterize the automorphism groups of such graphs. In particular, we show that for a non-complete $(G,2)$-arc-transitive Cayley graph on $\mathrm{A}_n$ with $G$ almost simple, the socle of $G$ is either $\mathrm{A}_{n+1}$ or $\mathrm{A}_{n+2}$. We also construct …
A graph $Γ$ is a bi-Cayley graph over a group $G$ if $G$ is a semiregular group of automorphisms of $Γ$ having two orbits. Let $G$ be a non-abelian metacyclic $p$-group for an odd prime $p$, and let $Γ$ be a connected bipartite bi-Cayley graph over the group $G$. In this paper, we prove that $G$ is normal in the full automorphism group ${\rm Aut}(Γ)$ of $Γ$ when $G$ is a Sylow $p$-subgroup of ${\rm Aut}(Γ)$. As an application, we classify half-arc-transitive bipartite bi-Cayley graphs over the group $G$ of valency less than $2p$. Furthermore, it is shown that there are no semisymmetric and no …
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.
Cayley's 1875 enumerations of centered and bicentered alkanes (unlabeled trees of valency at most 4) are corrected and extended -- possibly for the first time in 124 years.
Li and Praeger classified finite nonabelian simple groups, it has only one or two fusion classes of any certain value. As a by-product, they classified m-CI-groups, which is critical in the research of Cayley graphs. In the paper, we will consider generalized Cayley graphs. This concept is proposed by Marusic et al. In the paper, (local) m- GCI-group is defined, and we get many properties and characterizations based on the generalized Cayley isomorphism, which are the key measures for the classification of (local) m-GCI-group. And above all, we will give a classification of local 2-GCI-groups …
A partial difference set $S$ in a finite group $G$ satisfying $1 \notin S$ and $S = S^{-1}$ corresponds to an undirected strongly regular Cayley graph ${\rm Cay}(G,S)$. While the case when $G$ is abelian has been thoroughly studied, there are comparatively few results when $G$ is nonabelian. In this paper, we provide restrictions on the parameters of a partial difference set that apply to both abelian and nonabelian groups and are especially effective in groups with a nontrivial center. In particular, these results apply to $p$-groups, and we are able to rule out the existence of partial diffe…
Let $Γ=(V,E)$ be a graph of order $n$. A {\em closed distance magic labeling} of $Γ$ is a bijection $\ell : V \to \{1,2, \ldots, n\}$ for which there exists a positive integer $r$ such that $\sum_{x \in N[u]} \ell(x) = r$ for all vertices $u \in V$, where $N[u]$ is the closed neighborhood of $u$. A graph is said to be {\em closed distance magic} if it admits a closed distance magic labeling. In this paper, we classify all connected closed distance magic circulants with valency at most $5$, that is, Cayley graphs $\operatorname{Cay}(\mathbb{Z}_n;S)$ where $|S| \le 5$ and $S$ generates $\mathbb{…
Let S be a finite generating set of a torsion-free, nilpotent group G. We show that every automorphism of the Cayley graph Cay(G;S) is affine. (That is, every automorphism of the graph is obtained by composing a group automorphism with multiplication by an element of the group.) More generally, we show that if Cay(G;S) and Cay(G';S') are connected Cayley graphs of finite valency on two nilpotent groups G and G', then every isomorphism from Cay(G;S) to Cay(G';S') factors through to a well-defined affine map from G/N to G'/N', where N and N' are the torsion subgroups of G and G', respectively. F…
A skew-morphism of a finite group $G$ is a permutation $\s$ on $G$ fixing the identity element, and for which there exists an integer function $π$ on $G$ such that $\s(xy)=\s(x)\s^{π(x)}(y)$ for all $x,y\in G$. It has been known that given a skew-morphism $\s $ of $G$, the product of $\lg \s \rg$ with the left regular representation of $G$ forms a permutation group on $G$, called the skew-product group of $\s$. The skew-morphism was introduced as an algebraic tool to investigate regular Cayley maps. In this paper, the skew-product groups are characterized, for all skew-morphisms of finite nona…
Does every $n$-vertex Cayley graph have an orthonormal eigenbasis all of whose coordinates are $O(1/\sqrt{n})$? While the answer is yes for abelian groups, we show that it is no in general. On the other hand, we show that every $n$-vertex Cayley graph (and more generally, vertex-transitive graph) has an orthonormal basis whose coordinates are all $O(\sqrt{\log n / n})$, and that this bound is nearly best possible. Our investigation is motivated by a question of Assaf Naor, who proved that random abelian Cayley graphs are small-set expanders, extending a classic result of Alon--Roichman. His pr…
A graph is called {\em half-arc-transitive} if its full automorphism group acts transitively on vertices and edges, but not on arcs. It is well known that for any prime $p$ there is no tetravalent half-arc-transitive graph of order $p$ or $p^2$. Xu~[Half-transitive graphs of prime-cube order, J. Algebraic Combin. 1 (1992) 275-282] classified half-arc-transitive graphs of order $p^3$ and valency $4$. In this paper we classify half-arc-transitive graphs of order $p^3$ and valency $6$ or $8$. In particular, the first known infinite family of half-arc-transitive Cayley graphs on non-metacyclic $p$…
A graph $\G$ is {\em symmetric} or {\em arc-transitive} if its automorphism group $\Aut(\G)$ is transitive on the arc set of the graph, and $\G$ is {\em basic} if $\Aut(\G)$ has no non-trivial normal subgroup $N$ such that the quotient graph $\G_N$ has the same valency with $\G$. In this paper, we classify symmetric basic graphs of order $2qp^n$ and valency 5, where $q<p$ are two primes and $n$ is a positive integer. It is shown that such a graph is isomorphic to a family of Cayley graphs on dihedral groups of order $2q$ with $5\di (q-1)$, the complete graph $K_6$ of order $6$, the complete bi…
Given a finite group $G$ and a subset $S\subseteq G,$ the bi-Cayley graph $\bcay(G,S)$ is the graph whose vertex set is $G \times \{0,1\}$ and edge set is $\{\{(x,0),(s x,1)\} : x \in G, s\in S \}$. A bi-Cayley graph $\bcay(G,S)$ is called a BCI-graph if for any bi-Cayley graph $\bcay(G,T),$ $\bcay(G,S) \cong \bcay(G,T)$ implies that $T = g S^α$ for some $g \in G$ and $α\in \aut(G)$. A group $G$ is called an $m$-BCI-group if all bi-Cayley graphs of $G$ of valency at most $m$ are BCI-graphs.In this paper we prove that, a finite nilpotent group is a 3-BCI-group if and only if it is in the form $…
A Frobenius group is a transitive but not regular permutation group such that only the identity element can fix two points. A finite Frobenius group can be expressed as $G = K \rtimes H$ with $K$ a nilpotent normal subgroup. A first-kind $G$-Frobenius graph is a Cayley graph on $K$ with connection set $S$ an $H$-orbit on $K$ generating $K$, where $H$ is of even order or $S$ consists of involutions. We classify all 6-valent first-kind Frobenius circulant graphs such that the underlying kernel $K$ is cyclic. We give optimal gossiping and routing algorithms for such a circulant and compute its fo…
A number of authors have studied the question of when a graph can be represented as a Cayley graph on more than one nonisomorphic group. The work to date has focussed on a few special situations: when the groups are $p$-groups; when the groups have order $pq$; when the Cayley graphs are normal; or when the groups are both abelian. In this paper, we construct two infinite families of graphs, each of which is Cayley on an abelian group and a nonabelian group. These families include the smallest examples of such graphs that had not appeared in other results.
Let $Γ=\mathrm{Cay}(G,S)$ be a Cayley digraph on a group $G$ and let $A=\mathrm{Aut}(Γ)$. The Cayley index of $Γ$ is $|A:G|$. It has previously been shown that, if $p$ is a prime, $G$ is a cyclic $p$-group and $A$ contains a noncyclic regular subgroup, then the Cayley index of $Γ$ is superexponential in $p$. We present evidence suggesting that cyclic groups are exceptional in this respect. Specifically, we establish the contrasting result that, if $p$ is an odd prime and $G$ is abelian but not cyclic, and has order a power of $p$ at least $p^3$, then there is a Cayley digraph $Γ$ on $G$ whose …
An automorphism of a graph is called quasi-semiregular if it fixes a unique vertex of the graph and its remaining cycles have the same length. This kind of symmetry of graphs was first investigated by Kutnar, Malnič, Martínez and Marušič in 2013, as a generalization of the well-known semiregular automorphism of a graph. Symmetric graphs of valency three or four, admitting a quasi-semiregular automorphism, have been classified in recent two papers. Let $p\geq 5$ be a prime and $Γ$ a connected symmetric graph of valency $p$ admitting a quasi-semiregular automorphism. In this paper, we first prov…
We give two new constructions of almost difference sets. The first is a generic construction of $(q^{2}(q+1),q(q^{2}-1),q(q^{2}-q-1),q^{2}-1)$ almost difference sets in certain groups of order $q^{2}(q+1)$ ($q$ is an odd prime power) having ($\mathbb{F}_{q},+)$ as a subgroup. The construction occurs in any group of order $p^{2}(p+1)$ ($p$ is an odd prime) having ($\mathbb{F}_{p^{2}},+)$ as an additive subgroup. This construction yields several infinite families of almost difference sets, many of which occur in nonabelian groups. The second construction yields $(4p,2p+1,p,p-1)$ almost differenc…
In this paper, we determine the bound of the valency of Cayley graphs of Frobenius groups with respect to normal Cayley subsets which guarantees to be Ramanujan. We see that if the ratio between the orders of the Frobenius kernel and complement is not so small, then this bound coincides with the trivial one coming from the trivial estimate of the largest non-trivial eigenvalue of the graphs. Moreover, in the cases of the dihedral groups of order twice odd primes, which are special cases of the Frobenius groups, we determine the same bound for the Cayley graphs of the groups with respect to not…
An automorphism $α$ of a Cayley graph $Cay(G,S)$ of a group $G$ with connection set $S$ is color-preserving if $α(g,gs) = (h,hs)$ or $(h,hs^{-1})$ for every edge $(g,gs)\in E(Cay(G,S))$. If every color-preserving automorphism of $Cay(G,S)$ is also affine, then $Cay(G,S)$ is a CCA (Cayley color automorphism) graph. If every Cayley graph $Cay(G,S)$ is a CCA graph, then $G$ is a CCA group. Hujdurović, Kutnar, D.W. Morris, and J. Morris have shown that every non-CCA group $G$ contains a section isomorphic to the nonabelian group $F_{21}$ of order $21$. We first show that there is a unique non-CCA …
Two-sided group digraphs and graphs, introduced by Iradmusa and Praeger, provide a generalization of Cayley digraphs and graphs in which arcs are determined by left and right multiplying by elements of two subsets of the group. We characterize when two-sided group digraphs and graphs are weakly and strongly connected and count connected components, using both an explicit elementary perspective and group actions. Our results and examples address four open problems posed by Iradmusa and Praeger that concern connectedness and valency. We pose five new open problems.
In analogy with epsilon-biased sets over Z_2^n, we construct explicit epsilon-biased sets over nonabelian finite groups G. That is, we find sets S subset G such that | Exp_{x in S} rho(x)| <= epsilon for any nontrivial irreducible representation rho. Equivalently, such sets make G's Cayley graph an expander with eigenvalue |lambda| <= epsilon. The Alon-Roichman theorem shows that random sets of size O(log |G| / epsilon^2) suffice. For groups of the form G = G_1 x ... x G_n, our construction has size poly(max_i |G_i|, n, epsilon^{-1}), and we show that a set S \subset G^n considered by Meka and…
In this paper we discuss a method for bounding the size of the stabiliser of a vertex in a $G$-vertex-transitive graph $Γ$. In the main result the group $G$ is quasiprimitive or biquasiprimitive on the vertices of $Γ$, and we obtain a genuine reduction to the case where $G$ is a nonabelian simple group. Using normal quotient techniques developed by the first author, the main theorem applies to general $G$-vertex-transitive graphs which are $G$-locally primitive (respectively, $G$-locally quasiprimitive), that is, the stabiliser $G_α$ of a vertex $α$ acts primitively (respectively quasiprimitiv…
A Cayley digraph $\rm{Cay}(G,S)$ of a group $G$ with respect to a subset $S$ of $G$ is called a CI-digraph if for any Cayley digraph $\rm{Cay}(G,T)$ isomorphic to $\rm{Cay}(G,S)$, there is an $α\in \rm{Aut}(G)$ such that $S^α=T$. For a positive integer $m$, $G$ is said to have the $m$-DCI property if all Cayley digraphs of $G$ with out-valency $m$ are CI-digraphs. Li [The Cyclic groups with the $m$-DCI Property, European J. Combin. 18 (1997) 655-665] characterized cyclic groups with the $m$-DCI property, and in this paper, we characterize dihedral groups with the $m$-DCI property. For a dihedr…
This paper initiates the investigation of the family of $(G,s)$-geodesic-transitive digraphs with $s\geq 2$. We first give a global analysis by providing a reduction result. Let $Γ$ be such a digraph and let $N$ be a normal subgroup of $G$ maximal with respect to having at least $3$ orbits. Then the quotient digraph $Γ_N$ is $(G/N,s')$-geodesic-transitive where $s'=\min\{s,\diam(Γ_N)\}$, $G/N$ is either quasiprimitive or bi-quasiprimitive on $V(Γ_N)$, and $Γ_N$ is either directed or an undirected complete graph. Moreover, it is further shown that if $Γ$ is not $(G,2)$-arc-transitive, then $G/N…
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 classif…
We study the family of \emph{derangement action digraphs}, which are a subfamily of the group action graphs introduced in [Fred Annexstein, Marc Baumslag, and Arnold L. Rosenberg, Group action graphs and parallel architectures, \emph{SIAM J. Comput.} 19 (1990), no. 3, 544--569]. For any non-empty set $X$ and a non-empty subset $S$ of $\Der(X)$, the set of derangments of $X$, we define the derangement action digraph $\rm\overrightarrow{DA}(X;S)$ to have vertex set $X$, and an arc from $x$ to $y$ if and only if $y=x^s$ for some $s\in S$. In common with Cayley graphs and digraphs, derangement act…
A connected symmetric graph of prime valency is {\em basic} if its automorphism group contains no nontrivial normal subgroup having more than two orbits. Let $p$ be a prime and $n$ a positive integer. In this paper, we investigate properties of connected pentavalent symmetric graphs of order $2p^n$, and it is shown that a connected pentavalent symmetric graph of order $2p^n$ is basic if and only if it is either a graph of order $6$, $16$, $250$, or a graph of three infinite families of Cayley graphs on generalized dihedral groups -- one family has order $2p$ with $p=5$ or $5 \mid (p-1)$, one f…
