The edge-flipping group of a graph

Let $X=(V,E)$ be a finite simple connected graph with $n$ vertices and $m$ edges. A configuration is an assignment of one of two colors, black or white, to each edge of $X.$ A move applied to a configuration is to select a black edge $\epsilon\in E$ and change the colors of all adjacent edges of $\epsilon.$ Given an initial configuration and a final configuration, try to find a sequence of moves that transforms the initial configuration into the final configuration. This is the edge-flipping puzzle on $X,$ and it corresponds to a group action. This group is called the edge-flipping group $\mathbf{W}_E(X)$ of $X.$ This paper shows that if $X$ has at least three vertices, $\mathbf{W}_E(X)$ is isomorphic to a semidirect product of $(\mathbb{Z}/2\mathbb{Z})^k$ and the symmetric group $S_n$ of degree $n,$ where $k=(n-1)(m-n+1)$ if $n$ is odd, $k=(n-2)(m-n+1)$ if $n$ is even, and $\mathbb{Z}$ is the additive group of integers.Comment: 19 page

The flipping puzzle on a graph

Let $S$ be a connected graph which contains an induced path of $n-1$ vertices, where $n$ is the order of $S.$ We consider a puzzle on $S$. A configuration of the puzzle is simply an $n$-dimensional column vector over $\{0, 1\}$ with coordinates of the vector indexed by the vertex set $S$. For each configuration $u$ with a coordinate $u_s=1$, there exists a move that sends $u$ to the new configuration which flips the entries of the coordinates adjacent to $s$ in $u.$ We completely determine if one configuration can move to another in a sequence of finite steps.Comment: 18 pages, 1 figure and 1 tabl

Distance-regular graphs, pseudo primitive idempotents, and the Terwilliger algebra

Let $\Gamma$ denote a distance-regular graph with diameter $D\geq 3$ and Bose-Mesner algebra $M$. For $\theta\in C\cup \infty$ we define a 1 dimensional subspace of $M$ which we call $M(\theta)$. If $\theta\in C$ then $M(\theta)$ consists of those $Y$ in $M$ such that $(A-\theta I)Y\in C A_D$, where $A$ (resp. $A_D$) is the adjacency matrix (resp. $D$th distance matrix) of $\Gamma.$ If $\theta = \infty$ then $M(\theta)= C A_D$. By a {\it pseudo primitive idempotent} for $\theta$ we mean a nonzero element of $M(\theta)$. We use pseudo primitive idempotents to describe the irreducible modules for the Terwilliger algebra, that are thin with endpoint one.Comment: 17 page

3-bounded property in a triangle-free distance-regular graph

Let $\Gamma$ denote a distance-regular graph with classical parameters $(D, b, \alpha, \beta)$ and $D\geq 3$. Assume the intersection numbers $a_1=0$ and $a_2\not=0$. We show $\Gamma$ is 3-bounded in the sense of the article [D-bounded distance-regular graphs, European Journal of Combinatorics(1997)18, 211-229].Comment: 13 page

Strongly Regular Graphs as Laplacian Extremal Graphs

The Laplacian spread of a graph is the difference between the largest eigenvalue and the second-smallest eigenvalue of the Laplacian matrix of the graph. We find that the class of strongly regular graphs attains the maximum of largest eigenvalues, the minimum of second-smallest eigenvalues of Laplacian matrices and hence the maximum of Laplacian spreads among all simple connected graphs of fixed order, minimum degree, maximum degree, minimum size of common neighbors of two adjacent vertices and minimum size of common neighbors of two nonadjacent vertices. Some other extremal graphs are also provided.Comment: 11 pages, 4 figures, 1 tabl