Roman Nedela

Lifting Graph Automorphisms by Voltage Assignments

The problem of lifting graph automorphisms along covering projections and the analysis of lifted groups is considered in a purely combinatorial setting. The main tools employed are: (1) a systematic use of the fundamental groupoid; (2) unification of ordinary, relative and permutation voltage constructions into the concept of a voltage space; (3) various kinds of invariance of voltage spaces relative to automorphism groups; and (4) investigation of geometry of the lifted actions by means of transversals over a localization set. Some applications of these results to regular maps on surfaces are given. Because of certain natural applications and greater generality, graphs are allowed to have semiedges. This requires careful re-examination of the whole subject and at the same time leads to simplification and generalization of several known results.

Maps and Half-transitive Graphs of Valency 4

A subgroupG of automorphisms of a graphX is said to be 12- transitive if it is vertex- and edge- but not arc-transitive. The graphX is said to be 12-transitive if AutX is 12-transitive. The correspondence between regular maps and 12-transitive group actions on graphs of valency 4 is studied via the well known concept of medial graphs. Among others it is proved that under certain general conditions imposed on a map, its medial graph must be a 12-transitive graph of valency 4 and, vice versa, under certain conditions imposed on the vertex stabilizer, a 12-transitive graph of valency 4 gives rise tobreak an irreflexible regular map. This way infinite families of 12-transitive graphs are constructed from known examples of regular maps. Conversely, known constructions of 12-transitive graphs of valency 4 give rise to new examples of irreflexible regular maps. In the end, the concept of a symmetric genus of a 12-transitive graph of valency 4 is introduced. In particular, 12-transitive graphs of valency 4 and small symmetric genuses are discussed.

Decompositions and reductions of snarks

According to M. Gardner [“Mathematical Games: Snarks, Boojums, and Other Conjectures Related to the Four-Color-Map Theorem,” Scientific American, vol. 234 (1976), pp. 126–130], a snark is a nontrivial cubic graph whose edges cannot be properly colored by three colors. The problem of what “nontrivial” means is implicitly or explicitly present in most papers on snarks, and is the main motivation of the present paper. Our approach to the discussion is based on the following observation. If G is a snark with a k-edge-cut producing components G1 and G2, then either one of G1 and G2 is not 3-edge-colorable, or by adding a “small” number of vertices to either component one can obtain snarks G1 and G2 whose order does not exceed that of G. The two situations lead to a definition of a k-reduction and k-decomposition of G. Snarks that for m < k do not admit m-reductions, m-decompositions, or both are k-irreducible, k-indecomposable, and k-simple, respectively. The irreducibility, indecomposability, and simplicity provide natural measures of nontriviality of snarks closely related to cyclic connectivity. The present paper is devoted to a detailed investigation of these invariants. The results give a complete characterization of irreducible snarks and characterizations of k-simple snarks for k ≤ 6. A number of problems that have arisen in this research conclude the paper.

Regular Embeddings of Canonical Double Coverings of Graphs

This paper addresses the question of determining, for a given graphG, all regular maps havingGas their underlying graph, i.e., all embeddings ofGin closed surfaces exhibiting the highest possible symmetry. We show that ifGsatisfies certain natural conditions, then all orientable regular embeddings of its canonical double covering, isomorphic to the tensor productG?K2, can be described in terms of regular embeddings ofG. This allows us to “lift” the classification of regular embeddings of a given graph to a similar classification for its canonical double covering and to establish various properties of the “derived” maps by employing those of the “base” maps. We apply these results to determining all orientable regular embeddings of the tensor productsKn?K2(known as the cocktail-party graphs) and of then-dipolesDn, the graphs consisting of two vertices and n parallel edges joining them. In the first case we show, in particular, that regular embeddings ofKn?K2exist only ifnis a prime powerpl, and there are 2?(n?1) or?(n?1) isomorphism classes of such maps (where?is Eulers function) according to whetherlis even or odd. Forleven an interesting new infinite family of regular maps is discovered. In the second case, orientable regular embeddings ofDnexist for each positive integern, and their number is a power of 2 depending on the decomposition ofninto primes.

The Hamilton-Waterloo problem: the case of Hamilton cycles and triangle-factors

We discuss a special case of the Hamilton-Waterloo problem in which a 2-factorization of Kn is sought consisting of 2-factors of two kinds: Hamiltonian cycles, and triangle-factors. We determine completely the spectrum of solutions for several infinite classes of orders n.

Regular embeddings of complete bipartite graphs

Abstract We prove that for any prime number p the complete bipartite graph K p , p has, up to isomorphism, precisely one regular embedding on an orientable surface—the well-known embedding with faces bounded by hamiltonian cycles.

Finite graphs of valency 4 and girth 4 admitting half-transitive group actions

Finite graphs of valency 4 and girth 4 admitting 1/2-transitive group actions, that is, vertex- and edge- but not arc-transitive group actions, are investigated. A graph is said to be 1/2- transitive if its automorphism group acts 1/2-transitively. There is a natural orientation of the edge set of a 1/2-transitive graph induced and preserved by its automorphism group. It is proved that in a finite 1/2-transitive graph of valency 4 and girth 4 the set of 4-cycles decomposes the edge set in such a way that either every 4-cycle is alternating or every 4-cycle is directed relative to this orientation. In the latter case vertex stabilizers are isomorphic to 2.

Regular Maps on Surfaces with Large Planar Width

A map is a cell decomposition of a closed surface; it is regular if its automorphism group acts transitively on the flags, mutually incident vertex-edge-face triples. The main purpose of this paper is to establish, by elementary methods, the following result: for each positive integer w and for each pair of integersp? 3 and q? 3 satisfying 1/p+ 1/q? 1/2, there is an orientable regular map with face-size p and valency q such that every non-contractible simple closed curve on the surface meets the 1-skeleton of the map in at least w points. This result has several interesting consequences concerning maps on surfaces, graphs and related concepts. For example, MacBeath?s theorem about the existence of infinitely many Hurwitz groups, or Vince?s theorem about regular maps of given type (p, q), or residual finiteness of triangle groups, all follow from our result.

Regular Homomorphisms and Regular Maps

Regular homomorphisms of oriented maps essentially arise from a factorization by a subgroup of automorphisms. This kind of map homomorphism is studied in detail, and generalized to the case when the induced homomorphism of the underlying graphs is not valency preserving. Reconstruction is treated by means of voltage assignments on angles, a natural extension of the common assignments on darts. Lifting and projecting groups of automorphisms along regular homomorphisms is studied in some detail. Finally, the split-extension structure of lifted groups is analysed.

Algorithmic Aspects of Regular Graph Covers with Applications to Planar Graphs

A graph