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We construct the first infinite families of locally 2-arc transitive graphs with the property that the automorphism group has two orbits on vertices and is quasiprimitive on exactly one orbit, of twisted wreath type. This work contributes to Giudici, Li and Praeger’s program for the classification of locally 2-arc transitive graphs by showing that the star normal quotient twisted wreath category also contains infinitely many graphs.

An LR-structure is a tetravalent vertex-transitive graph together with a special type of a decomposition of its edge-set into cycles. LR-structures were introduced in a paper by P. Poto\v{c}nik and S. Wilson, titled `Linking rings structures and tetravalent semisymmetric graphs', in Ars Math. Contemp. 7 (2014), as a tool to study tetravalent semisymmetric graphs of girth 4. In this paper, we use the methods of group amalgams to resolve some problems left open in the above-mentioned paper.

A Cayley graph for a group G is CCA if every automorphism of the graph that preserves the edge-orbits under the regular representation of G is an element of the normaliser of G. A group G is then said to be CCA if every connected Cayley graph on G is CCA. We show that a finite simple group is CCA if and only if it has no element of order 4. We also show that “many” 2-groups are non-CCA.

Dolfi, Guralnick, Praeger and Spiga asked whether there exist infinitely many primitive groups of twisted wreath type with non-trivial coprime subdegrees. Here, we settle this question in the affirmative. We construct infinite families of primitive twisted wreath permutation groups with non-trivial coprime subdegrees. In particular, we define a primitive twisted wreath groupG(m,q) constructed from the non-abelian simple group PSL(2,q) and a primitive permutation group of diagonal type with socle PSL(2,q)m, and determine many subdegrees for this group. A consequence is that we determine all values ofmandqfor whichG(m,q) has non-trivial coprime subdegrees. In the case wherem= 2 and$q\notin \{7,11,29\}$, we obtain a full classification of all pairs of non-trivial coprime subdegrees.

We characterise the primitive 2-closed groups $G$ of rank at most four that are not the automorphism group of a graph or digraph and show that if the degree is at least 2402 then there are just two infinite families or $G\leqslant \mathrm{A}\Gamma\mathrm{L}_1(p^d)$, the 1-dimensional affine semilinear group. These are the first known examples of non-regular 2-closed groups that are not the automorphism group of a graph or digraph.

A transitive permutation group is semiprimitive if each of its normal subgroups is transitive or semiregular. Interest in this class of groups is motivated by two sources: problems arising in universal algebra related to collapsing monoids and the graph-restrictive problem for permutation groups. Here we develop a theory of semiprimitive groups which encompasses their structure, their quotient actions and a method by which all finite semiprimitive groups are constructed. We also extend some results from the theory of primitive groups to semiprimitive groups, and conclude with open problems of a similar nature., Comment: 34 pages

The mathematics of shuffling a deck of $2n$ cards with two "perfect shuffles" was brought into clarity by Diaconis, Graham and Kantor. Here we consider a generalisation of this problem, with a so-called "many handed dealer" shuffling $kn$ cards by cutting into $k$ piles with $n$ cards in each pile and using $k!$ shuffles. A conjecture of Medvedoff and Morrison suggests that all possible permutations of the deck of cards are achieved, so long as $k\neq 4$ and $n$ is not a power of $k$. We confirm this conjecture for three doubly infinite families of integers: all $(k,n)$ with $k>n$; all $(k, n)\in \{ (\ell^e, \ell^f )\mid \ell \geqslant 2, \ell^e>4, f \ \mbox{not a multiple of}\ e\}$; and all $(k,n)$ with $k=2^e\geqslant 4$ and $n$ not a power of $2$. We open up a more general study of shuffle groups, which admit an arbitrary subgroup of shuffles.

The distinguishing number of $G \leqslant \sym(\Omega)$ is the smallest size of a partition of $\Omega$ such that only the identity of $G$ fixes all the parts of the partition. Extending earlier results of Cameron, Neumann, Saxl and Seress on the distinguishing number of finite primitive groups, we show that all imprimitive quasiprimitive groups have distinguishing number two, and all non-quasiprimitive semiprimitive groups have distinguishing number two, except for $\mathrm{GL}(2, 3)$ acting on the eight non-zero vectors of $\mathbb F_2^3$, which has distinguishing number three., Comment: 10 pages

A permutation group is called semiprimitive if each of its normal subgroups is either transitive or semiregular. Given nontrivial finite transitive permutation groups L 1 and L 2 with L 1 not semiprimitive, we construct an infinite family of rank two amalgams of permutation type [ L 1 , L 2 ] and Borel subgroups of strictly increasing order. As an application, we show that there is no bound on the order of edge-stabilisers in locally [ L 1 , L 2 ] graphs. We also consider the corresponding question for amalgams of rank k ≥ 3 . We completely resolve this by showing that the order of the Borel subgroup is bounded by the permutation type [ L 1 , … , L k ] only in the trivial case where each of L 1 , … , L k is regular.

A Cayley graph on a group $G$ has a natural edge-colouring. We say that such a graph is CCA if every automorphism of the graph that preserves this edge-colouring is an element of the normaliser of the regular representation of $G$. A group $G$ is then said to be CCA if every Cayley graph on $G$ is CCA. Our main result is a characterisation of non-CCA graphs on groups that are Sylow cyclic and whose order is not divisible by four. We also provide several new constructions of non-CCA graphs., Comment: New version makes minor corrections to statements of Lemma 2.4 and Theorem 4.4

Given integers $k$ and $m$, we construct a $G$-arc-transitive graph of valency $k$ and an $L$-arc-transitive oriented digraph of out-valency $k$ such that $G$ and $L$ both admit blocks of imprimitivity of size $m$.

Let $p>3$ be a prime. For each maximal subgroup $H\leqslant\mathrm{GL}(d,p)$ with $|H| \geqslant p^{3d+1}$, we construct a $d$-generator finite $p$-group $G$ with the property that $\mathrm{Aut}(G)$ induces $H$ on the Frattini quotient $G/\Phi(G)$ and $|G| \leqslant p^{\frac{d^4}{2}}$. A significant feature of this construction is that $|G|$ is very small compared to $|H|$, shedding new light upon a celebrated result of Bryant and Kov\'acs. The groups $G$ that we exhibit have exponent $p$, and of all such groups $G$ with the desired action of $H$ on $G/\Phi(G)$, the construction yields groups with smallest nilpotency class, and in most cases, the smallest order., Comment: 24 pages, 2 figures, 2 tables Typos corrected. Acknowledgement extended. To appear J. Pure. Appl. Algebra

The research of the first author is supported by the Australian Research Council grant DP120100446. We improve on recent estimates for the probability of generating the alternating and symmetric groups An and Sn. In particular, we find the sharp lower bound if the probability is given by a quadratic in n−1. This leads to improved bounds on the largest number h(An) such that a direct product of h(An) copies of An can be generated by two elements. Postprint

Let $G$ be a collineation group of a thick finite generalised hexagon or generalised octagon $\Gamma$. If $G$ acts primitively on the points of $\Gamma$, then a recent result of Bamberg et al. shows that $G$ must be an almost simple group of Lie type. We show that, furthermore, the minimal normal subgroup $S$ of $G$ cannot be a Suzuki group or a Ree group of type $^2\mathrm{G}_2$, and that if $S$ is a Ree group of type $^2\mathrm{F}_4$, then $\Gamma$ is (up to point-line duality) the classical Ree-Tits generalised octagon.

In this paper we investigate graphs that admit a group acting arc-transitively such that the local action is semiprimitive with a regular normal nilpotent subgroup. This type of semiprimitive group is a generalisation of an affine group. We show that if the graph has valency coprime to six, then there is a bound on the order of the vertex stabilisers depending on the valency alone. We also prove a detailed structure theorem for the vertex stabilisers in the remaining case. This is a contribution to an ongoing project to investigate the validity of the Potocnik–Spiga–Verret Conjecture.

A transitive permutation group is called elusive if it contains no semiregular element. We show that no group of automorphisms of a connected graph of valency at most four is elusive and determine all the elusive groups of automorphisms of connected digraphs of out-valency at most three., To appear in the European Journal of Combinatorics

We prove that an infinite family of semiprimitive groups are graph-restrictive. This adds to the evidence for the validity of the PSV Conjecture and increases the minimal imprimitive degree for which this conjecture is open to 12. Our result can be seen as a generalisation of the well-known theorem of Tutte on cubic graphs. The proof uses the amalgam method, adapted to this new situation., Comment: 12 pages

A simple undirected graph is weakly $G$-locally projective, for a group of automorphisms $G$, if for each vertex $x$, the stabiliser $G(x)$ induces on the set of vertices adjacent to $x$ a doubly transitive action with socle the projective group $L_{n_x}(q_x)$ for an integer $n_x$ and a prime power $q_x$. It is $G$-locally projective if in addition $G$ is vertex transitive. A theorem of Trofimov reduces the classification of the $G$-locally projective graphs to the case where the distance factors are as in one of the known examples. Although an analogue of Trofimov's result is not yet available for weakly locally projective graphs, we would like to begin a program of characterising some of the remarkable examples. We show that if a graph is weakly locally projective with each $q_x =2$ and $n_x = 2$ or $3$, and if the distance factors are as in the examples arising from the rank 3 tilde geometries of the groups $M_{24}$ and $He$, then up to isomorphism there are exactly two possible amalgams. Moreover, we consider an infinite family of amalgams of type $\mathcal{U}_n$ (where each $q_x=2$ and $n=n_x+1\geq 4$) and prove that if $n\geq 5$ there is a unique amalgam of type $\mathcal{U}_n$ and it is unfaithful, whereas if $n=4$ then there are exactly four amalgams of type $\mathcal{U}_4$, precisely two of which are faithful, namely the ones related to $M_{24}$ and $He$, and one other which has faithful completion $A_{16}$.