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Every connected
mathematical
Mathematics is an area of knowledge that includes the topics of numbers, formulas and related structures, shapes and the spaces in which they are contained, and quantities and their changes. These topics are represented in modern mathematics ...
field of graph theory
In mathematics, graph theory is the study of ''graphs'', which are mathematical structures used to model pairwise relations between objects. A graph in this context is made up of '' vertices'' (also called ''nodes'' or ''points'') which are conne ...
, a half-transitive graph is a graph
Graph may refer to:
Mathematics
*Graph (discrete mathematics), a structure made of vertices and edges
**Graph theory, the study of such graphs and their properties
*Graph (topology), a topological space resembling a graph in the sense of discre ...
that is both vertex-transitive
In geometry, a polytope (e.g. a polygon or polyhedron) or a tiling is isogonal or vertex-transitive if all its vertices are equivalent under the symmetries of the figure. This implies that each vertex is surrounded by the same kinds of face in ...
and edge-transitive
In geometry, a polytope (for example, a polygon or a polyhedron) or a tiling is isotoxal () or edge-transitive if its symmetries act transitively on its edges. Informally, this means that there is only one type of edge to the object: given two ...
, but not symmetric
Symmetry (from grc, συμμετρία "agreement in dimensions, due proportion, arrangement") in everyday language refers to a sense of harmonious and beautiful proportion and balance. In mathematics, "symmetry" has a more precise definiti ...
. In other words, a graph is half-transitive if its automorphism group
In mathematics, the automorphism group of an object ''X'' is the group consisting of automorphisms of ''X'' under composition of morphisms. For example, if ''X'' is a finite-dimensional vector space, then the automorphism group of ''X'' is the g ...
acts transitively upon both its vertices and its edges, but not on ordered pairs of linked vertices.
Every connected symmetric graph
In the mathematical field of graph theory, a graph is symmetric (or arc-transitive) if, given any two pairs of adjacent vertices and of , there is an automorphism
:f : V(G) \rightarrow V(G)
such that
:f(u_1) = u_2 and f(v_1) = v_2.
In oth ...
must be vertex-transitive
In geometry, a polytope (e.g. a polygon or polyhedron) or a tiling is isogonal or vertex-transitive if all its vertices are equivalent under the symmetries of the figure. This implies that each vertex is surrounded by the same kinds of face in ...
and edge-transitive
In geometry, a polytope (for example, a polygon or a polyhedron) or a tiling is isotoxal () or edge-transitive if its symmetries act transitively on its edges. Informally, this means that there is only one type of edge to the object: given two ...
, and the converse is true for graphs of odd degree, so that half-transitive graphs of odd degree do not exist. However, there do exist half-transitive graphs of even degree. The smallest half-transitive graph is the Holt graph
In graph theory, the Holt graph or Doyle graph is the smallest half-transitive graph, that is, the smallest example of a vertex-transitive and edge-transitive graph which is not also symmetric. Such graphs are not common. It is named after Peter ...
, with degree 4 and 27 vertices..
References
{{reflist Graph families Algebraic graph theory Regular graphs