Let $Γ=(V,E)$ be a point-transitive reflexive relation. Let $v\in V$ and put $r=|Γ(v)|.$ Also assume $Γ^j(v)\cap Γ^{-}(v)=\{v\}$. Then $$ |Γ^{j} (v)\setminus Γ^{j-1} (v)| \ge r-1.$$
In particular we have $ |Γ^{j} (v)| \ge 1+(r-1)j.$ The last result confirms a recent conjecture of Seymour in the case vertex-transitive graphs. Also it gives a short proof for the validity of the Caccetta-Häggkvist conjecture for vertex-transitive graphs and generalizes an additive result of Shepherdson.
We prove that every finite arc-transitive graph of valency twice a prime admits a nontrivial semiregular automorphism, that is, a non-identity automorphism whose cycles all have the same length. This is a special case of the Polycirculant Conjecture, which states that all finite vertex-transitive digraphs admit such automorphisms.
One version of the polycirculant conjecture states that every vertex-transitive graph has a semiregular automorphism. We give a proof of the conjecture in the arc-transitive case for graphs of valency 8, which was the smallest open case.
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 $(96,20,4)$.
In this paper, we classify the $m$-ovoids of finite classical polar spaces that admit a transitive automorphism group acting irreducibly on the ambient vector space. In particular, we obtain several new infinite families of transitive $m$-ovoids.
The pairs $(\mathcal{D},G)$, where $\mathcal{D}$ is a non-trivial $2$-$(k^{2},k,λ)$ design, with $λ\mid k$, and $G$ is a flag-transitive automorphism group of $\mathcal{D}$ of affine type such that $G \nleq A ΓL_{1}(k^{2})$, are classified.
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.
Tutte's 3-flow conjecture asserts that every 4-edge-connected graph has a nowhere-zero 3-flow. In this note we prove that every regular graph of valency at least four admitting a solvable arc-transitive group of automorphisms admits a nowhere-zero 3-flow.
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 …
A graph is edge-transitive if its automorphism group acts transitively on the edge set. In this paper, we investigate the automorphism groups of edge-transitive graphs of odd order and twice prime valency. Let $Γ$ be a connected graph of odd order and twice prime valency, and let $G$ be a subgroup of the automorphism group of $\Ga$. In the case where $G$ acts transitively on the edges and quasiprimitively on the vertices of $\Ga$, we prove that either $G$ is almost simple or $G$ is a primitive group of affine type. If further $G$ is an almost simple primitive group then, with two exceptions, t…
When dealing with symmetry properties of mathematical objects, one of the fundamental questions is to determine their full automorphism group. In this paper this question is considered in the context of even/odd permutations dichotomy. More precisely: when is it that existence of automorphisms acting as even permutations on the vertex set of a graph, called {\em even automorphisms}, forces existence of automorphisms that act as odd permutations, called {\em odd automorphisms}. As a first step towards resolving the above question, a complete information on existence of odd automorphisms in cubi…
The polycirculant conjecture asserts that every vertex-transitive digraph has a semiregular automorphism, that is, a nontrivial automorphism whose cycles all have the same length. In this paper we investigate the existence of semiregular automorphisms of edge-transitive graphs. In particular, we show that any regular edge-transitive graph of valency three or four has a semiregular automorphism.
In the mid-1990s, two groups of authors independently obtained classifications of vertex-transitive graphs whose order is a product of two distinct primes. In the intervening years it has become clear that there is additional information concerning these graphs that would be useful, as well as making explicit the extensions of these results to digraphs. Additionally, there are several small errors in some of the papers that were involved in this classification. The purpose of this paper is to fill in the missing information as well as correct all known errors.
Analysing 2-$(v,k,2)$ designs admitting a flag-transitive almost simple automorphism group with socle $PSL(2,q)$ by means of conics and hyperovals of $PG(2,q)$
A graph is edge-primitive if its automorphism group acts primitively on the edge set. In this short paper, we prove that a finite 2-arc-transitive edge-primitive graph has almost simple automorphism group if it is neither a cycle nor a complete bipartite graph. We also present two examples of such graphs, which are 3-arc-transitive and have faithful vertex-stabilizers.
Building on earlier results for regular maps and for orientably regular chiral maps, we classify the non-abelian finite simple groups arising as automorphism groups of maps in each of the 14 Graver-Watkins classes of edge-transitive maps.
For a graph $G$ and a positive integer $k$, a vertex labelling $f:V(G)\to\{1,2\ldots,k\}$ is said to be $k$-distinguishing if no non-trivial automorphism of $G$ preserves the sets $f^{-1}(i)$ for each $i\in\{1,\ldots,k\}$. The distinguishing chromatic number of a graph $G$, denoted $χ_D(G)$, is defined as the minimum $k$ such that there is a $k$-distinguishing labelling of $V(G)$ which is also a proper coloring of the vertices of $G$. In this paper, we prove the following theorem: Given $k\in\mathbb{N}$, there exists an infinite sequence of vertex-transitive graphs $G_{i}=(V_i,E_i)$ such that …
A graph $\G$ admitting a group $H$ of automorphisms acting semi-regularly on the vertices with exactly two orbits is called a {\em bi-Cayley graph\/} over $H$. Such a graph $\G$ is called {\em normal\/} if $H$ is normal in the full automorphism group of $\G$, and {\em normal edge-transitive\/} if the normaliser of $H$ in the full automorphism group of $\G$ is transitive on the edges of $\G$. % In this paper, we give a characterisation of normal edge-transitive bi-Cayley graphs, %which form an important subfamily of bi-Cayley graphs, and in particular, we give a detailed description of $2$-arc-…
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…
The main result of this paper is that, if $Γ$ is a finite connected $4$-valent arc-transitive graph, then either $Γ$ is part of a well-understood family of graphs, or every non-identity automorphism of $Γ$ fixes at most $1/3$ of the vertices. As a corollary, we get a similar result for $3$-valent vertex-transitive graphs. Based on these results we propose a conjecture on the number of fixed points of non-identity automorphisms of vertex-transitive graphs of bounded valency.
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.
A regular cover of a connected graph is called {\em cyclic} or {\em dihedral} if its transformation group is cyclic or dihedral respectively, and {\em arc-transitive} (or {\em symmetric}) if the fibre-preserving automorphism subgroup acts arc-transitively on the regular cover. In this paper, we give a classification of arc-transitive cyclic and dihedral covers of a connected pentavalent symmetric graph of order twice a prime. All those covers are explicitly constructed as Cayley graphs on some groups, and their full automorphism groups are determined.
A code is called transitive if its automorphism group (the isometry group) of the code acts transitively on its codewords. If there is a subgroup of the automorphism group acting regularly on the code, the code is called propelinear. Using Magma software package we establish that among 201 equivalence classes of transitive perfect codes of length 15 from \cite{ost} there is a unique nonpropelinear code. We solve the existence problem for transitive nonpropelinear perfect codes for any admissible length $n$, $n\geq 15$. Moreover we prove that there are at least 5 pairwise nonequivalent such cod…
We study quantum automorphism groups of vertex-transitive graphs having less than 11 vertices. With one possible exception, these can be obtained from cyclic groups ${\mathbb Z}_n$, symmetric groups $S_n$ and quantum symmetric groups $\mathcal Q_n$, by using various product operations. The exceptional case is that of the Petersen graph, and we present some questions about it.
In this paper, we present a classification of $2$-designs with $\gcd(r,λ)=1$ admitting flag-transitive automorphism groups. If $G$ is a flag-transitive automorphism group of a non-trivial $2$-design $\mathcal{D}$ with $\gcd(r,λ)=1$, then either $(\mathcal{D},G)$ is one of the known examples described in this paper, or $\mathcal{D}$ has $q = p^{d}$ points with $p$ prime and $G$ is a subgroup of $AΓL_{1}(q)$.
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…
A finite linear space is a finite set of points and lines, where any two points lie on a unique line. Well known examples include projective planes. This project focuses on linear spaces which admit certain types of symmetries. Symmetries of the space which preserve the line structure are called automorphisms. A group of these is called an automorphism group of the linear space. Two interesting properties of linear spaces are point imprimitivity and line transitivity. Point imprimitive spaces admit a second structure on the points aside from the lines, which is also preserved by an automorphis…
We classify non-complete prime valency graphs satisfying the property that their automorphism group is transitive on both the set of arcs and the set of $2$-geodesics. We prove that either $Γ$ is 2-arc transitive or the valency $p$ satisfies $p\equiv 1\pmod 4$, and for each such prime there is a unique graph with this property: it is a non-bipartite antipodal double cover of the complete graph $K_{p+1}$ with automorphism group $PSL(2,p)\times Z_2$ and diameter 3.
A graph is half-arc-transitive if its automorphism group acts transitively on its vertex set, edge set, but not its arc set. In this paper, we study all tetravalent half-arc-transitive graphs of order $12p$.
Let $s$ be a positive integer. A graph is $s$-transitive if its automorphism group is transitive on s-arcs but not on $(s + 1)$-arcs. In this paper, we study all tetravalent s-transitive graphs of order $6p^2$.
In this article, we study $2$-designs with prime replication number admitting a flag-transitive automorphism group. The automorphism groups of these designs are point-primitive of almost simple or affine type. We determine $2$-designs with prime replication number admitting an almost simple automorphism group.
We give a construction of a family of designs with a specified point-partition, and determine the subgroup of automorphisms leaving invariant the point-partition. We give necessary and sufficient conditions for a design in the family to possess a flag-transitive group of automorphisms preserving the specified point-partition. We give examples of flag-transitive designs in the family, including a new symmetric $2$-$(1408,336,80)$ design with automorphism group $2^{12}:((3\cdot\mathrm{M}_{22}):2)$, and a construction of one of the families of the symplectic designs (the designs $S^-(n)$) exhibit…
In this paper we investigate orders, longest cycles and the number of cycles of automorphisms of finite vertex-transitive graphs. In particular, we show that the order of every automorphism of a connected vertex-transitive graph with $n$ vertices and of valence $d$, $d\le 4$, is at most $c_d n$ where $c_3=1$ and $c_4 = 9$. Whether such a constant $c_d$ exists for valencies larger than $4$ remains an unanswered question. Further, we prove that every automorphism $g$ of a finite connected $3$-valent vertex-transitive graph $Γ$, $Γ\not\cong K_{3,3}$, has a regular orbit, that is, an orbit of $\la…
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.
A graph is said to be a bi-Cayley graph over a group H if it admits H as a group of automorphisms acting semiregularly on its vertices with two orbits. For a prime p, we call a bi-Cayley graph over a metacyclic p-group a bi-p-metacirculant. In this paper, the automorphism group of a connected cubic edge-transitive bi-p-metacirculant is characterized for an odd prime p, and the result reveals that a connected cubic edge-transitive bi-p-metacirculant exists only when p=3. Using this, a classification is given of connected cubic edge-transitive bi-Cayley graphs over an inner-abelian metacyclic 3-…
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.
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 cap in PG(r,q) is a set of points, no three of which are collinear. A cap is said to be transitive if its automorphism group in PGammaL(r+1,q) acts transtively on the cap, and co-transitive if the automorphism group acts transtively on the cap's complement in PG(r,q). Transitive, co-transitive caps are characterized as being one of: an elliptic quadric in PG(3,q); a Suzuki-Tits ovoid in PG(3,q); a hyperoval in PG(2,4); a cap of size 11 in PG(4,3); the complement of a hyperplane in PG(r,2); or a union of Singer orbits in PG(r,q) whose automorphism group comes from a subgroup of GammaL(1,q^{r+…
