Meta-Cayley Graphs on Dihedral Groups

Abstract

The pursuit of graphs which are vertex-transitive and non-Cayley on groups has been ongoing for some time. There has long been evidence to suggest that such graphs are a very rarety in occurrence. Much success has been had in this regard with various approaches being used. The aim of this thesis is to find such a class of graphs. We will take an algebraic approach. We will define Cayley graphs on loops, these loops necessarily not being groups. Specifically, we will define meta-Cayley graphs, which are vertex-transitive by construction. The loops in question are defined as the semi-direct product of groups, one of the groups being Z₂ consistently, the other being in the class of dihedral groups. In order to prove non-Cayleyness on groups, we will need to fully determine the automorphism groups of these graphs. Determining the automorphism groups is at the crux of the matter. Once these groups are determined, we may then apply Sabidussi's theorem. The theorem states that a graph is Cayley on groups if and only if its automorphism group contains a subgroup which acts regularly on its vertex set.