ON A CLASS OF EDGE-TRANSITIVE DISTANCE-REGULAR ANTIPODAL COVERS OF COMPLETE GRAPHS

The paper is devoted to the problem of classification of edge-transitive distance-regular antipodal covers of complete graphs. This extends the classification of those covers that are arc-transitive, which has been settled except for some tricky cases that remain to be considered, including the case of covers satisfying condition \(c_2=1\) (which means that every two vertices at distance 2 have exactly one common neighbour).Here it is shown that an edge-transitive distance-regular antipodal cover of a complete graph with \(c_2=1\) is either the second neighbourhood of a vertex in a Moore graph of valency 3 or 7, or a Mathon graph, or a half-transitive graph whose automorphism group induces an affine \(2\)-homogeneous group on the set of its fibres. Moreover, distance-regular antipodal covers of complete graphs with \(c_2=1\) that admit an automorphism group acting \(2\)-homogeneously on the set of fibres (which turns out to be an approximation of the property of edge-transitivity of such cover), are described. A well-known correspondence between distance-regular antipodal covers of complete graphs with \(c_2=1\) and geodetic graphs of diameter two that can be viewed as underlying graphs of certain Moore geometries, allows us to effectively restrict admissible automorphism groups of covers under consideration by combining Kantor's classification of involutory automorphisms of these geometries together with the classification of finite 2-homogeneous permutation groups.

On Total Regularity of Mixed Graphs with Order Close to the Moore Bound

The undirected degree/diameter and degree/girth problems and their directed analogues have been studied for many decades in the search for efficient network topologies. Recently such questions have received much attention in the setting of mixed graphs, i.e. networks that admit both undirected edges and directed arcs. The degree/diameter problem for mixed graphs asks for the largest possible order of a network with diameter k, maximum undirected degree $$\le r$$≤r and maximum directed out-degree $$\le z$$≤z. Similarly one can search for the smallest possible k-geodetic mixed graphs with minimum undirected degree $$\ge r$$≥r and minimum directed out-degree $$\ge z$$≥z. A simple counting argument reveals the existence of a natural bound, the Moore bound, on the order of such graphs; a graph that meets this limit is a mixed Moore graph. Mixed Moore graphs can exist only for $$k = 2$$k=2 and even in this case it is known that they are extremely rare. It is therefore of interest to search for graphs with order one away from the Moore bound. Such graphs must be out-regular; a much more difficult question is whether they must be totally regular. For $$k = 2$$k=2, we answer this question in the affirmative, thereby resolving an open problem stated in a recent paper of López and Miret. We also present partial results for larger k. We finally put these results to practical use by proving the uniqueness of a 2-geodetic mixed graph with order exceeding the Moore bound by one.

The Unique Mixed Almost Moore Graph with Parameters k = 2, r = 2 and z = 1

A natural upper bound for the maximum number of vertices in a mixed graph with maximum undirected degree r, maximum directed out-degree z and diameter k is given by the mixed Moore bound. Graphs with order attaining the Moore bound are known as Moore graphs, and they are very rare. Besides, graphs with prescribed parameters and order one less than the corresponding Moore bound are known as almost Moore graphs. In this paper we prove that there is a unique mixed almost Moore graph of diameter k = 2 and parameters r = 2 and z = 1.

Painting Squares in $\Delta^2-1$ Shades

Cranston and Kim conjectured that if $G$ is a connected graph with maximum degree $\Delta$ and $G$ is not a Moore Graph, then $\chi_{\ell}(G^2)\le \Delta^2-1$; here $\chi_{\ell}$ is the list chromatic number. We prove their conjecture; in fact, we show that this upper bound holds even for online list chromatic number.