On 2-arc-transitivity of Cayley graphs (Q1403916)

In [\textit{B. Alspach} et al., J. Algebr. Comb. 5, 83-86 (1996; Zbl 0849.05034)] the classification of 2-arc-transitive Cayley graphs of cyclic groups is given. The main theme of the paper under review is the study of 2-arc-transitive Cayley graphs of dihedral groups which is motivated by the latter result. The author first presents a previously unknown infinite family of 2-arc-transitive Cayley graphs of dihedral groups \(D_{4(q+1)}\), \(q\) an odd prime power, which are denoted by \(K^4_{q+1}\) and arise as certain 4-fold covers of the complete graph \(K_{q+1}\) (and 2-fold covers of \(K_{q+1,q+1}-(q+1)K_2\), the complete bipartite graph with a 1-factor removed). In Section 3, the author introduces the concept of a symbol of a Cayley graph of a dihedral group which is an encoding of the set of neighbors of a given fixed vertex in the graph. It is then proved that the graphs \(K^4_{q+1}\), \(q\) an odd prime power, are indeed Cayley graphs of dihedral groups \(D_{4(q+1)}\) and as a consequence a property of Singer cycles in the group \(\text{PGL}(2,q)\) is given. A partial classification of 2-arc-transitive Cayley graphs of abelian groups with at most three involutions is also given in Section 6. These results are needed in the investigation of two particular aspects of 2-arc-transitive Cayley graphs of dihedral groups, i.e. certain small length blocks of imprimitivity and the above-mentioned symbols. These results are then used in Section 8 where the proof of the main theorem of the paper under review (Theorem 2.1) is finally given. This theorem is a structural reduction theorem for 2-arc-transitive Cayley graphs of dihedral groups which comes a step short from a complete classification of these graphs. The statements of Theorem 2.1 are too technical to be produced here. As the author remarks, in contrast with some other works on 2-arc-transitive graphs (see for example [\textit{R. W. Baddeley}, J. Algebr. Comb. 2, 215-237 (1993; Zbl 0785.05047), \textit{M. D. E. Condor} and \textit{C. G. Walker}, J. Algebra 208, 619-629 (1998; Zbl 0915.05066), and \textit{X. G. Fang} and \textit{C. E. Praeger}, Commun. Algebra 27, 3727-3754 (1999; Zbl 0956.05049)]) where the classification of finite simple groups is a vital and essential part, the underlying philosophy of this paper stems from a pursuit of different goal; with a blending of group-theoretic and combinatorial techniques and results from coverings of graphs, it has been managed to avoid the use of the classification of finite simple groups.