Cubic edge-transitive bi-\(p\)-metacirculants (Q1671649)

Summary: A graph is said to be a \textit{bi-Cayley graph} over a group \(H\) if it admits \(H\) as a group of automorphisms acting semiregularly on its vertices with two orbits. For a prime \(p\), we call a bi-Cayley graph over a metacyclic \(p\)-group a \textit{bi-\(p\)-metacirculant}. In this paper, the automorphism group of a connected cubic edge-transitive bi-\(p\)-metacirculant is characterized for an odd prime \(p\), and the result reveals that a connected cubic edge-transitive bi-\(p\)-metacirculant exists only when \(p=3\). Using this, a classification is given of connected cubic edge-transitive bi-Cayley graphs over an inner-abelian metacyclic \(3\)-group. As a result, we construct the first known infinite family of cubic semisymmetric graphs of order twice a \(3\)-power.