Topological groups and infinite graphs (Q1191934)

The author shows how structural properties of infinite, locally finite, vertex-symmetric graphs can be related to the structure of the automorphism groups of the graphs. After a brief introduction to the structure of topological groups, Section 3 is dedicated to a short proof of a result of \textit{V. I. Trofimov} [Math. USSR, Sb. 51, 405-417 (1985; Zbl 0565.05035), Theorem 2]: If the graph \(\Gamma(V,E)\) has polynomial growth and \(G\) is a group of automorphisms of \(\Gamma\) which acts transitively on \(V\), then there is an imprimitivity system \(\sigma\) of \(G\) on \(V\) with finite blocks, such that \(G^ \sigma\) is a finitely generated nilpotent-by-finite group with finite vertex stabilizers on \(\Gamma^ \sigma\). In Section 4, using results of Trofimov, the following extension of a result of \textit{Ch. D. Godsil}, \textit{W. Imrich}, \textit{N. Seifert}, \textit{M. W. Watkins} and the author [Graphs Combin. 5, 333-338 (1989; Zbl 0714.05029)] is proved: Let \(\Gamma\) be a vertex- symmetric graph; then \(B_ 0(\Gamma)\) is a closed normal subgroup of \(\text{Aut}(\Gamma)\) and \(B(\Gamma)/B_ 0(\Gamma)\) is a torsion free discrete abelian group (where \(B(\Gamma)\) represents the group of bounded automorphisms of \(\Gamma\) while \(B_ 0(\Gamma)\) is the subgroup of bounded automorphisms with finite order). The paper ends with three problems on infinite graphs, two of which have recently been solved (according to notes added in proof).