Trivalent expanders and hyperbolic surfaces

We introduce a family of trivalent expanders which tessellate compact hyperbolic surfaces with large isometry groups. We compare this family with Platonic graphs and modifications of them and prove topological and spectral properties of these families

Symmetries of Hexagonal Molecular Graphs on the Torus

Symmetric properties of some molecular graphs on the torus are studied. In particular we determine which cubic cyclic Haar graphs are 1-regular, which is equivalent to saying that their line graphs are ½-arc-transitive. Although these symmetries make all vertices and all edges indistinguishable, they imply intrinsic chirality of the corresponding molecular graph

N=2 Gauge Theories: Congruence Subgroups, Coset Graphs and Modular Surfaces

We establish a correspondence between generalized quiver gauge theories in four dimensions and congruence subgroups of the modular group, hinging upon the trivalent graphs which arise in both. The gauge theories and the graphs are enumerated and their numbers are compared. The correspondence is particularly striking for genus zero torsion-free congruence subgroups as exemplified by those which arise in Moonshine. We analyze in detail the case of index 24, where modular elliptic K3 surfaces emerge: here, the elliptic j-invariants can be recast as dessins d'enfant which dictate the Seiberg-Witten curves.Comment: 42+1 pages, 5 figures; various helpful comments incorporate

The girth of cubic graphs

We start with an account of the known bounds for n(3,g), the number of vertices in the smallest trivalent graph of girth g,for g 12, including the construction of the smallest known trivalent graph of girth 9. This particular graph has 58 vertices - the 32 known trivalent graphs with 60 vertices are also catalogued and in some cases constructed. We prove the existence of vertex transitive trivalent graphs of arbitrarily high girth using Cayley graphs. The same result is proved for symmetric (that is vertex transitive and edge transitive) graphs, and a family of 2-arctransitive graphs for which the girth is unbounded is exhibited. The excess of trivalent graphs of girth g is shown to be unbounded as a function of g.A lower bound for the number of vertices in the smallest trivalent Cayley graph of girth g is then found for all g = 9, and in each case it is shown that this bound is attained. We also establish an upper bound for the girth of Cayley graphs of subgroups of Aff (p) thegroup of linear transformations of the form x -> ax + b where a,b are members of the field with p elements and a is non-zero. This family contains thesmallest known trivalent graphs of girth 13 and 14, which are exhibited. Lastly a family of 4-arctransitive graphs for which the girth may be unbounded is constructed using "sextets". There is a graph in this family corresponding to each odd prime, and the family splits into several subfamilies depending on the congruency class of this prime modulo 16. The graphs corresponding to the primes congruent to 3,5,11,13modulo 16 are actually 5-arctransitive. The girth of many of these graphs has been computed and graphs with girths up to and including 32 have been found.<p