Self-complementary Cayley graphs of extraspecial \(p\)-groups (Q2287769)

The main result of this paper is to show that a self-complementary Cayley graph on \(G\) exists, whenever \(G\) is an extraspecial \(p\)-group with \(p \equiv 1 \pmod{4}\). It is well-known that \(|G|\) (and therefore \(p\) in this situation, since \(|G|\) is an odd power of \(p\)) must be \(1\) modulo \(4\) in order for a self-complementary Cayley graph to be possible. A Cayley graph on a group \(G\) is a graph whose automorphism group contains a regular subgroup isomorphic to \(G\). A self-complementary graph is a graph that is isomorphic to its complement (i.e. to the graph obtained by interchanging edges and non-edges). An isomorphism between a self-complementary graph and its complement is called a complementing isomorphism. An extraspecial \(p\)-group is a \(p\)-group whose center, commutator subgroup, and Frattini subgroup all coincide and have order \(p\). Such a group can always be constructed as the central product of \(k\) nonabelian subgroups of order \(p^3\), and there are exactly two nonisomorphic extraspecial \(p\)-groups of order \(p^{2k+1}\) for any \(k \ge 1\). The paper shows that it is possible to use a (necessarily fixed-point-free) automorphism of the group \(G\) to produce a complementing isomorphism if and only if \(G\) is the extraspecial group with exponent \(p\). For the other extraspecial group of any given order, the authors find a graph isomorphism between a specified Cayley graph and its complement, but this graph automorphism is not a group automorphism.