Arc-transitive graphs of valency 8 have a semiregular automorphism

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.Comment: 5 page

Semiregular automorphisms of edge-transitive graphs

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

Semiregular automorphisms of cubic vertex-transitive graphs

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.Comment: This paper settles Problem 6.3 in P. Cameron, M. Giudici, G. Jones, W. Kantor, M. Klin, D. Maru\v{s}i\v{c}, L. A. Nowitz, Transitive permutation groups without semiregular subgroups, J. London Math. Soc. 66 (2002), 325--33

Cubic vertex-transitive non-Cayley graphs of order 12p

A graph is said to be {\em vertex-transitive non-Cayley} if its full automorphism group acts transitively on its vertices and contains no subgroups acting regularly on its vertices. In this paper, a complete classification of cubic vertex-transitive non-Cayley graphs of order $12p$, where $p$ is a prime, is given. As a result, there are $11$ sporadic and one infinite family of such graphs, of which the sporadic ones occur when $p=5$, $7$ or $17$, and the infinite family exists if and only if $p\equiv1\ (\mod 4)$, and in this family there is a unique graph for a given order.Comment: This paper has been accepted for publication in SCIENCE CHINA Mathematic

Elusive groups of automorphisms of digraphs of small valency

A transitive permutation group is called elusive if it contains no semiregular element. We show that no group of automorphisms of a connected graph of valency at most four is elusive and determine all the elusive groups of automorphisms of connected digraphs of out-valency at most three.Comment: To appear in the European Journal of Combinatoric

On basic graphs of symmetric graphs of valency five

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 bipartite graph $K_{5,5}$ of order 10, or one of the nine sporadic coset graphs associated with non-abelian simple groups. As an application, connected pentavalent symmetric graphs of order $kp^n$ for some small integers $k$ and $n$ are classified

A classification of nilpotent 3-BCI groups

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 $T = g S^\alpha$ for some $g \in G$ and \alpha \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 $U \times V,$ where $U$ is a homocyclic group of odd order, and $V$ is trivial or one of the groups $\Z_{2^r},$ $\Z_2^r$ and \Q_8

Cubic arc-transitive kk-circulants

For an integer $k\geq 1$, a graph is called a $k$-circulant if its automorphism group contains a cyclic semiregular subgroup with $k$ orbits on the vertices. We show that, if $k$ is even, there exist infinitely many cubic arc-transitive $k$-circulants. We conjecture that, if $k$ is odd, then a cubic arc-transitive $k$-circulant has order at most $6k^2$. Our main result is a proof of this conjecture when $k$ is squarefree and coprime to $6$

Bipartite bi-Cayley graphs over metacyclic groups of odd prime-power order

A graph $\Gamma$ is a bi-Cayley graph over a group $G$ if $G$ is a semiregular group of automorphisms of $\Gamma$ having two orbits. Let $G$ be a non-abelian metacyclic $p$-group for an odd prime $p$, and let $\Gamma$ 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 ${\rm Aut}(\Gamma)$ of $\Gamma$ when $G$ is a Sylow $p$-subgroup of ${\rm Aut}(\Gamma)$. 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 arc-transitive bipartite bi-Cayley graphs over the group $G$ of valency less than $p$.Comment: 20 pages, 1 figur

On edge-primitive and 2-arc-transitive graphs

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