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Primitive groups, graph endomorphisms and synchronization

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Araujo_2016_Primitive_PLMS_AAM.pdf (378.1Kb)
Date
12/2016
Author
Araújo, João
Bentz, Wolfram
Cameron, Peter Jephson
Royle, Gordon
Schaefer, Artur
Keywords
Permutation group
Semigroup
Synchronization
Graph endomorphism
QA Mathematics
Mathematics(all)
T-NDAS
BDC
R2C
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Abstract
Let Ω be a set of cardinality n, G be a permutation group on Ω and f:Ω→Ω be a map that is not a permutation. We say that G synchronizes f if the transformation semigroup ⟨G,f⟩ contains a constant map, and that G is a synchronizing group if G synchronizes every non-permutation.  A synchronizing group is necessarily primitive, but there are primitive groups that are not synchronizing. Every non-synchronizing primitive group fails to synchronize at least one uniform transformation (that is, transformation whose kernel has parts of equal size), and it had previously been conjectured that this was essentially the only way in which a primitive group could fail to be synchronizing, in other words, that a primitive group synchronizes every non-uniform transformation.  The first goal of this paper is to prove that this conjecture is false, by exhibiting primitive groups that fail to synchronize specific non-uniform transformations of ranks 5 and 6. As it has previously been shown that primitive groups synchronize every non-uniform transformation of rank at most 4, these examples are of the lowest possible rank. In addition, we produce graphs with primitive automorphism groups that have approximately √n non-synchronizing ranks, thus refuting another conjecture on the number of non-synchronizing ranks of a primitive group. The second goal of this paper is to extend the spectrum of ranks for which it is known that primitive groups synchronize every non-uniform transformation of that rank. It has previously been shown that a primitive group of degree n synchronizes every non-uniform transformation of rank n−1 and n−2, and here this is extended to n−3 and n−4.  In the process, we will obtain a purely graph-theoretical result showing that, with limited exceptions, in a vertex-primitive graph the union of neighbourhoods of a set of vertices A is bounded below by a function that is asymptotically √|A|. Determining the exact spectrum of ranks for which there exist non-uniform transformations not synchronized by some primitive group is just one of several natural, but possibly difficult, problems on automata, primitive groups, graphs and computational algebra arising from this work; these are outlined in the final section.
Citation
Araújo , J , Bentz , W , Cameron , P J , Royle , G & Schaefer , A 2016 , ' Primitive groups, graph endomorphisms and synchronization ' , Proceedings of the London Mathematical Society , vol. 113 , no. 6 , pp. 829-867 . https://doi.org/10.1112/plms/pdw040
Publication
Proceedings of the London Mathematical Society
Status
Peer reviewed
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1112/plms/pdw040
ISSN
0024-6115
Type
Journal article
Rights
© 2016, London Mathematical Society. This work is made available online in accordance with the publisher’s policies. This is the author created, accepted version manuscript following peer review and may differ slightly from the final published version. The final published version of this work is available at https://doi.org/10.1112/plms/pdw040
Description
The third author has been partially supported by the Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia through the project CEMAT-CIÊNCIAS UID/Multi/04621/2013.
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  • University of St Andrews Research
URI
http://hdl.handle.net/10023/9648

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