The diameter of the commuting graph of a finite group with trivial centre. (Q2438382)

The commuting graph \(\Gamma(G)\) of a group \(G\) is the graph which has vertices the non-central elements of \(G\) and two distinct vertices of \(\Gamma(G)\) are adjacent if and only if they commute in \(G\). \textit{A. Iranmanesh} and \textit{A. Jafarzadeh} [J. Algebra Appl. 7, No. 1, 129-146 (2008; Zbl 1151.20013)] demonstrated that the commuting graphs of the finite symmetric and alternating groups are either disconnected or have diameter at most 5 and conjectured that there is an absolute upper bound for the diameter of a connected commuting graph of a non-Abelian finite group. \textit{M. Giudichi} and \textit{C. Parker} [J. Comb. Theory, Ser. A 120, No. 7, 1600-1603 (2013)] have shown that this conjecture is incorrect by constructing an infinite family of special 2-groups with commuting graphs of increasing diameter. In this paper, the authors prove that the connected components of the commuting graph of a finite group with trivial centre have diameter at most 10. Various special kinds of finite groups with bounded diameter commuting graph were investigated by \textit{Y. Segev} and \textit{G. M. Seitz} [Pac. J. Math. 202, No. 1, 125-225 (2002; Zbl 1058.20015)], Iranmanesh and Jafarzadeh [loc. cit.], \textit{T. J. Woodkock} [Commuting graphs of finite groups. PhD thesis, Univ. Virginia (2010)], \textit{M. Giudici} and \textit{A. Pope} [Australas. J. Comb. 48, 221-230 (2010; Zbl 1232.05114); J. Group Theory 17, No. 1, 131-149 (2014)], the second author [Bull. Lond. Math. Soc. 45, No. 4, 839-848 (2013; Zbl 1278.20017)].