Cycles in the burnt pancake graphs

The pancake graph $P_n$ is the Cayley graph of the symmetric group $S_n$ on $n$ elements generated by prefix reversals. $P_n$ has been shown to have properties that makes it a useful network scheme for parallel processors. For example, it is $(n-1)$-regular, vertex-transitive, and one can embed cycles in it of length $\ell$ with $6\leq\ell\leq n!$. The burnt pancake graph $BP_n$, which is the Cayley graph of the group of signed permutations $B_n$ using prefix reversals as generators, has similar properties. Indeed, $BP_n$ is $n$-regular and vertex-transitive. In this paper, we show that $BP_n$ has every cycle of length $\ell$ with $8\leq\ell\leq 2^n n!$. The proof given is a constructive one that utilizes the recursive structure of $BP_n$. We also present a complete characterization of all the $8$-cycles in $BP_n$ for $n \geq 2$, which are the smallest cycles embeddable in $BP_n$, by presenting their canonical forms as products of the prefix reversal generators.Comment: Added a reference, clarified some definitions, fixed some typos. 42 pages, 9 figures, 20 pages of appendice

Random induced subgraphs of Cayley graphs induced by transpositions

In this paper we study random induced subgraphs of Cayley graphs of the symmetric group induced by an arbitrary minimal generating set of transpositions. A random induced subgraph of this Cayley graph is obtained by selecting permutations with independent probability, $\lambda_n$. Our main result is that for any minimal generating set of transpositions, for probabilities $\lambda_n=\frac{1+\epsilon_n}{n-1}$ where $n^{-{1/3}+\delta}\le \epsilon_n0$, a random induced subgraph has a.s. a unique largest component of size $\wp(\epsilon_n)\frac{1+\epsilon_n}{n-1}n!$, where $\wp(\epsilon_n)$ is the survival probability of a specific branching process.Comment: 18 pages, 1 figur

Cayley graphs on the symmetric group generated by initial reversals have unit spectral gap

In a recent paper Gunnells, Scott and Walden have determined the complete spectrum of the Schreier graph on the symmetric group corresponding to the Young subgroup $S_{n-2}\times S_2$ and generated by initial reversals. In particular they find that the first nonzero eigenvalue, or spectral gap, of the Laplacian is always 1, and report that "empirical evidence" suggests that this also holds for the corresponding Cayley graph. We provide a simple proof of this last assertion, based on the decomposition of the Laplacian of Cayley graphs, into a direct sum of irreducible representation matrices of the symmetric group.Comment: Shorter version. Published in the Electron. J. of Combinatoric

On the spectral gap of some Cayley graphs on the Weyl group W(Bn)W(B_n)

The Laplacian of a (weighted) Cayley graph on the Weyl group $W(B_n)$ is a $N\times N$ matrix with $N = 2^n n!$ equal to the order of the group. We show that for a class of (weighted) generating sets, its spectral gap (lowest nontrivial eigenvalue), is actually equal to the spectral gap of a $2n \times 2n$ matrix associated to a $2n$-dimensional permutation representation of $W_n$. This result can be viewed as an extension to $W(B_n)$ of an analogous result valid for the symmetric group, known as `Aldous' spectral gap conjecture', proven in 2010 by Caputo, Liggett and Richthammer.Comment: Version 1 (v1) contains a mistake. The main result is proved here under a less general hypothesis than in v1. Main result of v1 is left as a conjectur