Commuting involution graphs for sporadic simple groups. (Q2464508)

Let \(G\) be a finite group, \(t\in G\) an involution and \(X=t^G\). The commuting involution graph \({\mathcal C}(G,X)\) has \(X\) as its vertex set with two distinct elements of \(X\) joined by an edge whenever they commute in \(G\). A number of authors have studied \({\mathcal C}(G,X)\) for various choices of \(G\) and \(X\), for example, \textit{B. Fischer}, [Invent. Math. 13, 232-246 (1971; Zbl 0232.20040)], \textit{C. Bates, D. Bundy, S. Perkins} and \textit{P. Rowley} [J. Algebra 266, No. 1, 133-153 (2003; Zbl 1034.20003), J. Group Theory 6, No. 4, 461-476 (2003; Zbl 1041.20026), Commun. Algebra 32, No. 11, 4179-4196 (2004; Zbl 1074.20033)]. In this paper, the authors study the structure of the graphs \({\mathcal C}(G,X)\) in the case when \(\text{Inn}(K)\leq G\leq\Aut(K)\), where \(K\) is one of the 26 sporadic finite simple groups. For most of these groups \(G\), they compute the diameter of \({\mathcal C}(G,X)\) and give detailed information about the elements at a given distance from a fixed involution \(t\).