Most switching classes with primitive automorphism groups contain graphs with trivial groups

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Abstract

The operation of switching a graph Gamma with respect to a subset X of the vertex set interchanges edges and non-edges between X and its complement, leaving the rest of the graph unchanged. This is an equivalence relation on the set of graphs on a given vertex set, so we can talk about the automorphism group of a switching class of graphs.

It might be thought that switching classes with many automorphisms would have the property that all their graphs also have many automorphisms. But the main theorem of this paper shows a different picture: with finitely many
exceptions, if a non-trivial switching class S has primitive automorphism group, then it contains a graph whose automorphism group is trivial. We also find all the exceptional switching classes; up to complementation, there are just six.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)76-90
Number of pages15
JournalAustralasian Journal of Combinatorics
Volume62
Issue number1
Early online date2 Apr 2015
Publication statusPublished - Jun 2015

Keywords

  • Switching classes
  • Automorphism groups
  • Primitive groups

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