A code $C$ in the Hamming metric, that is, is a subset of the vertex set $V\varGamma$ of the Hamming graph $\varGamma=H(m,q)$, gives rise to a natural distance partition $\{C,C_1,\ldots,C_ρ\}$, where $ρ$ is the covering radius of $C$. Such a code $C$ is called completely transitive if the automorphism group $\rm{Aut}(C)$ acts transitively on each of the sets $C$, $C_1$, \ldots, $C_ρ$. A code $C$ is called $2$-neighbour-transitive if $ρ\geq 2$ and $\rm{Aut}(C)$ acts transitively on each of $C$, $C_1$ and $C_2$.
Let $C$ be a completely transitive code in a binary ($q=2$) Hamming graph having full automorphism group $\rm{Aut}(C)$ and minimum distance $δ\geq 5$. Then it is known that $\rm{Aut}(C)$ induces a $2$-homogeneous action on the coordinates of the vertices of the Hamming graph. The main result of this paper classifies those $C$ for which this induced $2$-homogeneous action is not an affine, linear or symplectic group. We find that there are $13$ such codes, $4$ of which are non-linear codes. Though most of the codes are well-known, we obtain several new results. First, a new non-linear completely transitive code is constructed, as well as a related non-linear code that is $2$-neighbour-transitive but not completely transitive. Moreover, new proofs of the complete transitivity of several codes are given. Additionally, we answer the question of the existence of distance-regular graphs related to the completely transitive codes appearing in our main result.
In this paper new infinite families of linear binary completely transitive codes are presented. They have covering radius $ρ= 3$ and 4, and are a half part of the binary Hamming and the binary extended Hamming code of length $n=2^m-1$ and $2^m$, respectively, where $m$ is even. From these new completely transitive codes, in the usual way, i.e., as coset graphs, new presentations of infinite families of distance transitive coset graphs of diameter three and four, respectively, are constructed.
Given a parity-check matrix $H_m$ of a $q$-ary Hamming code, we consider a partition of the columns into two subsets. Then, we consider the two codes that have these submatrices as parity-check matrices. We say that anyone of these two codes is the supplementary code of the other one. We obtain that if one of these codes is a Hamming code, then the supplementary code is completely regular and completely transitive. If one of the codes is completely regular with covering radius $2$, then the supplementary code is also completely regular with covering radius at most $2$. Moreover, in this case, …
We view a design $\mathcal{D}$ as a set of $k$-subsets of a fixed set $X$ of $v$ points. A $k$-subset of $X$ is at distance $i$ from $\mathcal{D}$ if it intersects some $k$-set in $\mathcal{D}$ in $k-i$ points, and no subset in more than $k-i$ points. Thus $\mathcal{D}$ determines a partition by distance of the $k$-subsets of $X$. We say $\mathcal{D}$ is completely transitive if the cells of this partition are the orbits of the automorphism group of $\mathcal{D}$ in its induced action on the $k$-subsets of $X$. This paper initiates a study of completely transitive designs $\mathcal{D}$. A clas…
A code $C$ in the Hamming graph $\varGamma=H(m,q)$ is $2\it{\text{-neighbour-transitive}}$ if ${\rm Aut}(C)$ acts transitively on each of $C=C_0$, $C_1$ and $C_2$, the first three parts of the distance partition of $V\varGamma$ with respect to $C$. Previous classifications of families of $2$-neighbour-transitive codes leave only those with an affine action on the alphabet to be investigated. Here, $2$-neighbour-transitive codes with minimum distance at least $5$ and that contain "small" subcodes as blocks of imprimitivity are classified. When considering codes with minimum distance at least $5…
In his doctoral thesis, Snover proved that any binary $(m,256,δ)$ code is equivalent to the Nordstrom-Robinson code or the punctured Nordstrom-Robinson code for $(m,δ)=(16,6)$ or $(15,5)$ respectively. We prove that these codes are also characterised as \emph{completely regular} binary codes with $(m,δ)=(16,6)$ or $(15,5)$, and moreover, that they are \emph{completely transitive}. Also, it is known that completely transitive codes are necessarily completely regular, but whether the converse holds has up to now been an open question. We answer this by proving that certain completely regular cod…
The completely regular codes in Hamming graphs have a high degree of combinatorial symmetry and have attracted a lot of interest since their introduction in 1973 by Delsarte. This paper studies the subfamily of completely transitive codes, those in which an automorphism group is transitive on each part of the distance partition. This family is a natural generalisation of the binary completely transitive codes introduced by Sole in 1990. We take the first step towards a classification of these codes, determining those for which the automorphism group is faithful on entries.
The symmetric $2$-$(v,k,λ)$ designs, with $k>λ\left(λ-3 \right)/2$, admitting a flag-transitive, point-imprimitive automorphism group are completely classified: they are the known $2$-designs with parameters $(16,6,2),(45,12,3),(15,8,4)$ or $(96,20,4)$.
To each supersimple $2-(n,4,λ)$ design $\mathcal{D}$ one associates a `Conway groupoid,' which may be thought of as a natural generalisation of Conway's Mathieu groupoid associated to $M_{13}$ which is constructed from $\mathbb{P}_3$. We show that $\operatorname{Sp}_{2m}(2)$ and $2^{2m}.\operatorname{Sp}_{2m}(2)$ naturally occur as Conway groupoids associated to certain designs. It is shown that the incidence matrix associated to one of these designs generates a new family of completely transitive $\mathbb{F}_2$-linear codes with minimum distance 4 and covering radius 3, whereas the incidence …
In this paper infinite families of linear binary nested completely regular codes are constructed. They have covering radius $ρ$ equal to $3$ or $4$, and are $1/2^i$-th parts, for $i\in\{1,\ldots,u\}$ of binary (respectively, extended binary) Hamming codes of length $n=2^m-1$ (respectively, $2^m$), where $m=2u$. In the usual way, i.e., as coset graphs, infinite families of embedded distance-regular coset graphs of diameter $D$ equal to $3$ or $4$ are constructed. In some cases, the constructed codes are also completely transitive codes and the corresponding coset graphs are distance-transitive.
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 a given transitive binary relation e on a set E, the transitive closures of open (i.e., co-transitive in e) sets, called the regular closed subsets, form an ortholattice Reg(e), the extended permutohedron on e. This construction, which contains the poset Clop(e) of all clopen sets, is a common generalization of known notions such as the generalized permutohedron on a partially ordered set on the one hand, and the bipartition lattice on a set on the other hand. We obtain a precise description of the completely join-irreducible (resp., completely meet-irreducible) elements of Reg(e) and the …
We study transitivity properties of graphs with more than one end. We completely classify the distance-transitive such graphs and, for all $k \geq 3$, the $k$-CS-transitive such graphs.
We construct new families of completely regular codes by concatenation methods. By combining parity check matrices of cyclic Hamming codes, we obtain families of completely regular codes. In all cases, we compute the intersection array of these codes. We also study when the extension of these codes gives completely regular codes. Some of these new codes are completely transitive.
The main result here is a characterisation of binary $2$-neighbour-transitive codes with minimum distance at least $5$ via their minimal subcodes, which are found to be generated by certain designs. The motivation for studying this class of codes comes primarily from their relationship to the class of completely regular codes. The results contained here yield many more examples of $2$-neighbour-transitive codes than previous classification results of families of $2$-neighbour-transitive codes. In the process, new lower bounds on the minimum distance of particular sub-families are produced. Sev…
We consider codes of length $m$ over an alphabet of size $q$ as subsets of the vertex set of the Hamming graph $Γ=H(m,q)$. A code for which there exists an automorphism group $X\leq Aut(Γ)$ that acts transitively on the code and on its set of neighbours is said to be neighbour transitive, and were introduced by the authors as a group theoretic analogue to the assumption that single errors are equally likely over a noisy channel. Examples of neighbour transitive codes include the Hamming codes, various Golay codes, certain Hadamard codes, the Nordstrom Robinson codes, certain permutation codes …
In this paper, for any prime $p$, we propose the notion of a $p$-transitive association scheme. This notion aims to generalize the fact that the regular module of a group algebra of a finite group has a unique trivial submodule to the case of the regular modules of modular adjacency algebras. We completely determine the $p$-transitive quasi-thin association schemes and the $p$-transitive association schemes with thin thin residue by their structure theory properties.
A Steiner quadruple system of order v is a 3-(v,4,1) design, and will be denoted SQS(v). Using the classification of finite 2-transitive permutation groups all SQS(v) with a flag-transitive automorphism group are completely classified, thus solving the "still open and longstanding problem of classifying all flag-transitive 3-(v,k,1) designs" for the smallest value of k. Moreover, a generalization of a result of H. Lueneburg (1965, Math. Z. 89, 82-90) is achieved.
We classify binary completely regular codes of length $m$ with minimum distance $δ$ for $(m,δ)=(12,6)$ and $(11,5)$. We prove that such codes are unique up to equivalence, and in particular, are equivalent to certain Hadamard codes. We prove that the automorphism groups of these Hadamard codes, modulo the kernel of a particular action, are isomorphic to certain Mathieu groups, from which we prove that completely regular codes with these parameters are necessarily completely transitive.
Tetravalent graphs admitting a half-arc-transitive subgroup of automorphisms, that is a subgroup acting transitively on its vertices and its edges but not on its arcs, are investigated. One of the most fruitful approaches for the study of structural properties of such graphs is the well known paradigm of alternating cycles and their intersections which was introduced by Marušič 20 years ago. In this paper a new parameter for such graphs, giving a further insight into their structure, is introduced. Various properties of this parameter are given and the parameter is completely determined for th…
A permutation group is called semiprimitive if each of its normal subgroups is either transitive or semiregular. Given nontrivial finite transitive permutation groups $L_1$ and $L_2$ with $L_1$ not semiprimitive, we construct an infinite family of rank two amalgams of permutation type $[L_1,L_2]$ and Borel subgroups of strictly increasing order. As an application, we show that there is no bound on the order of edge-stabilisers in locally $[L_1,L_2]$ graphs. We also consider the corresponding question for amalgams of rank $k\geq 3$. We completely resolve this by showing that the order of the Bo…
A known Kronecker construction of completely regular codes has been investigated taking different alphabets in the component codes. This approach is also connected with lifting constructions of completely regular codes. We obtain several classes of completely regular codes with different parameters, but identical intersection array. Given a prime power $q$ and any two natural numbers $a,b$, we construct completely transitive codes over different fields with covering radius $ρ=\min\{a,b\}$ and identical intersection array, specifically, one code over $\F_{q^r}$ for each divisor $r$ of $a$ or $b…
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…
After long term efforts, it was recently proved in \cite{DKM2} that except for the Peterson graph, every connected vertex-transitive graph of order $rs$ has a Hamilton cycle, where $r$ and $s$ are primes. A natural topic is to solve the hamiltonian problem for connected vertex-transitive graphs of $2rs$. This topic is quite trivial, as the problem is still unsolved even for that of $r=3$. In this paper, it is shown that except for the Coxeter graph, every connected vertex-transitive graph of order $2rs$ contains a Hamilton cycle, provided the automorphism group acts primitively on vertices.
This thesis concerns the study of homogeneous factorisations of complete graphs with edge-transitive factors. A factorisation of a complete graph $K_n$ is a partition of its edges into disjoint classes. Each class of edges in a factorisation of $K_n$ corresponds to a spanning subgraph called a factor. If all the factors are isomorphic to one another, then a factorisation of $K_n$ is called an isomorphic factorisation. A homogeneous factorisation of a complete graph is an isomorphic factorisation where there exists a group $G$ which permutes the factors transitively, and a normal subgroup $M$ o…
In combinatorial topology we aim to triangulate manifolds such that their topological properties are reflected in the combinatorial structure of their description. Here, we give a combinatorial criterion on when exactly triangulations of 3-manifolds with transitive cyclic symmetry can be generalised to an infinite family of such triangulations with similarly strong combinatorial properties. In particular, we construct triangulations of Seifert fibred spaces with transitive cyclic symmetry where the symmetry preserves the fibres and acts non-trivially on the homology of the spaces. The triangul…
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 f…
For any integer $ρ\geq 1$ and for any prime power q, the explicit construction of a infinite family of completely regular (and completely transitive) q-ary codes with d=3 and with covering radius $ρ$ is given. The intersection array is also computed. Under the same conditions, the explicit construction of an infinite family of q-ary uniformly packed codes (in the wide sense) with covering radius $ρ$, which are not completely regular, is also given. In both constructions the Kronecker product is the basic tool that has been used.
We consider the determination of the number $c_k(α)$ of ordered factorisations of an arbitrary permutation on n symbols, with cycle distribution $α$, into k-cycles such that the factorisations have minimal length and such that the group generated by the factors acts transitively on the n symbols. The case k=2 corresponds to the celebrated result of Hurwitz on the number of topologically distinct holomorphic functions on the 2-sphere that preserve a given number of elementary branch point singularities. In this case the monodromy group is the alternating group, and this is another case that, in…
A theorem of Hoffman gives an upper bound on the independence ratio of regular graphs in terms of the minimum $λ_{\min}$ of the spectrum of the adjacency matrix. To complement this result we use random eigenvectors to gain lower bounds in the vertex-transitive case. For example, we prove that the independence ratio of a $3$-regular transitive graph is at least \[q=\frac{1}{2}-\frac{3}{4π}\arccos\biggl(\frac{1-λ_{\min}}{4}\biggr).\] The same bound holds for infinite transitive graphs: we construct factor of i.i.d. independent sets for which the probability that any given vertex is in the set is…
Let E be a finite set. Given permutations x and y of E that together generate a transitive subgroup, for which s is it true that x and the conjugate of y by s also generate a transitive subgroup? Such transitive permutation pairs encode dessins d'enfants, important graph-theoretic objects which are also known to have great arithmetic significance. The absolute Galois group acts on dessins d'enfants and permutes them in a very mysterious way. Two dessins d'enfants that share certain elementary combinatorial features are related by conjugations as above, and dessins d'enfants in the same Galois-…
The connective constant $μ(G)$ of a graph $G$ is the exponential growth rate of the number of self-avoiding walks starting at a given vertex. We investigate the validity of the inequality $μ\ge ϕ$ for infinite, transitive, simple, cubic graphs, where $ϕ:= \frac12(1+\sqrt 5)$ is the golden mean. The inequality is proved for several families of graphs including (i) Cayley graphs of infinite groups with three generators and strictly positive first Betti number, (ii) infinite, transitive, topologically locally finite (TLF) planar, cubic graphs, and (iii) cubic Cayley graphs with two ends. Bounds f…
The dodecacode is a nonlinear additive quaternary code of length $12$. By puncturing it at any of the twelve coordinates, we obtain a uniformly packed code of distance $5$. In particular, this latter code is completely regular but not completely transitive. Its coset graph is distance-regular of diameter three on $2^{10}$ vertices, with new intersection array $\{33,30,15;1,2,15\}$. The automorphism groups of the code, and of the graph, are determined. Connecting the vertices at distance two gives a strongly regular graph of (previously known) parameters $(2^{10},495,238,240)$. Another strongly…
