Finite permutation groups with a regular dihedral subgroup, and edge-transitive dihedrants. (Q397908)

Let \(X\) be a finite transitive permutation group on the set \(\Omega\). If \(X\) has a regular dihedral subgroup then \(X\) is called a \(d\)-group. The permutation group \(X\) is called quasiprimitive (resp. bi-quasiprimitive) if each non-trivial normal subgroup of \(X\) is transitive (resp. has exactly two orbits) on \(\Omega\). The study of \(d\)-groups goes back to the classical results by Burnside (1900) and Schur (1933) and is related to the study of certain important classes of symmetric graphs. A graph \(\Gamma =(V,E)\) is called a dihedrant if \(\Aut~\Gamma\) acting on the vertex set \(V\) is a \(d\)-group. A graph \(\Gamma=(V,E)\) is called edge-transitive if \(\Aut~\Gamma\) is transitive on the edge set \(E\). It is a natural problem to characterize edge-transitive dihedrants. This problem has been solved in certain special cases by \textit{D. Marušič} [in J. Comb. Theory, Ser. B 87, No. 1, 162-196 (2003; Zbl 1022.05034); and ibid. 96, No. 5, 761-764 (2006; Zbl 1093.05507)], by \textit{S. Du} et al. [in J. Comb. Theory, Ser. B 98, No. 6, 1349-1372 (2008; Zbl 1183.05035)], by \textit{I. Kovács, D. Marušič} and \textit{M. E. Muzychuck} [in J. Algebr. Comb. 33, No. 3, 409-426 (2011; Zbl 1227.05162)]. The quasiprimitive and bi-quasiprimitive \(d\)-groups play an important role in characterizing edge-transitive dihedrants. Quasiprimitive \(d\)-groups are classified by \textit{C. H. Li} [Trans. Am. Math. Soc. 358, No. 10, 4605-4635 (2006; Zbl 1112.05051)], with two examples missed unfortunately. A complete list is given in Theorem 3.3 of the present paper. The main result of this paper is a classification of bi-quasiprimitive \(d\)-groups. It is then applied to classify edge-transitive dihedrants of order \(2p^m\) and valency coprime to \(p\), where \(p\) is an odd prime and \(m\) is a positive integer.