Cubic semisymmetric graphs of order \(2qp^2\) (Q2274191)

A semisymmetric graph is regular, edge-transitive, but not vertex-transitive. Various authors classified semisymmetric cubic graphs whose orders are products of few primes of low powers. The orders $2qp^2$ and $2qp^3$, where $p > q \ge 5$ are primes, considered in this paper, are the first such orders not previously covered. The authors classify cubic semisymmetric graphs of orders $2qp^2$, by first showing that cubic semisymmetric graphs of the orders $2qp^2$ and $2qp^3$ are either regular covers of the Heawood graph and $q=7$, or $q \neq 7$, $3 | q-1$, and the graph is a normal bi-Cayley graph on a non-abelian group. A bi-Cayley graph admits a group of automorphisms acting semiregularly on its vertices with two orbits (of equal size), or equivalently, it is a graph consisting of two Cayley graphs $C(G,X)$, $C(G,Y)$, of the same group $G$ of order half the order of the graph with the two Cayley graphs connected through another set $S \subseteq G$ via edges of the form $(g,sg)$, where $g$ is a vertex of $C(G,X)$, $sg$ is a vertex of $C(G,Y)$, and $ s \in S$. In the main result, cubic semisymmetric graphs of orders $2qp^2$ are shown to be bi-Cayley graphs of the group \[ G = \left< a,b,c \mid a^p=b^p=c^q=\left[ a,b \right] =1, a^c=b, b^c = a^{-1} b^{\ell+\ell^p}, \ell^q \equiv 1 \pmod{p} \right> \] that satisfies additional conditions on existence and non-existence of specific automorphisms. The connecting sets $X$ and $Y$ of the two Cayley subgraphs are empty, and $S$ consists of $1_G$, $c^{-1}$, and the image of $c$ under one of these determining automorphisms. The arguments combine several previously known results concerning cubic semisymmetric graphs.