Coverings of graphs and maps, orthogonality, and eigenvectors (Q5949015)

Let \(\Gamma\) be a finite connected graph, and let \(A\in\text{Aut}(\Gamma)\). To each edge \(e\) of \(\Gamma\) there correspond both a directed edge \(x\) (called a dart) and its reverse \(x^{-1}\). A voltage assignment is a function \(\alpha\) from the set \(D\) of all darts of \(\Gamma\) into an arbitrary group \(G\) satisfying \(\alpha(x^{-1})=(\alpha(x))^{-1}\) for all \(x\in D\). For a walk \(W=x_1\cdots x_n\), define \(\alpha(W)=\alpha(x_1)\cdots\alpha(x_n)\). Call \(\alpha\) \(A\)-compatible if \(\alpha(W)=1_G\Leftrightarrow\alpha(AW)=1_G\) holds for all closed walks based at a given fixed vertex \(u\); call \(\alpha\) proper if \(G=\{\alpha(W):W\) is a closed walk based at \(u\}\). Let \(T\) be a spanning tree of \(\Gamma\) and let \(e_1,\ldots,e_r\) be the edges of \(\Gamma\) not in \(T\). Let an arbitrary orientation of \(\Gamma\) be given. For \(1\leq i\leq r\), let \(x_i\) be the dart determined by the orientation of \(e_i\) and let \(C_i\) be the oriented cycle in \(T+e_i\) containing \(x_i\). Consider the \(r\times r\) matrix \(L=L_T(A)=[c_{ij}]\) such that \(x_j^{c_{ij}}\) is in \(AC_i\) when \(e_j\) is the underlying edge of a dart in \(C_i\) and \(c_{ij}=0\) otherwise. Let \(\overline{\alpha}\) denote the \(r\times 1\) matrix \([\alpha(x_1),\dots,\alpha(x_r)]^T\). The main result of this carefully written paper is the following. Let \(G\) be an abelian group. Let \(\Gamma\), \(A\), \(\alpha\), \(\overline{\alpha}\), \(T\), and \(L\) have the meanings given above, and assume that \(\alpha(x)=1_G\) for all \(x\) in \(T\). Then the following statements are equivalent: (a) \(\alpha\) is \(A\)-compatible; (b) there exists \(\xi\in\text{Aut}(\Gamma)\) such that \(L\overline{\alpha}=\xi(\overline{\alpha})\); (c) \(\overline{\alpha}\) and \(L\overline{\alpha}\) have identical orthogonal complements. Still stronger results are obtained when \(G\) is cyclic. As an example, all the self-dual maps that cyclically cover the spherical reguar map of a tetrahedron are characterized.