English

Automorphism groups and Distinguishing Colorings of Central and Middle Graphs

Combinatorics 2026-04-09 v2 Group Theory

Abstract

Let G be a simple, finite, connected, and undirected graph. The middle graph M(G) of G is obtained from the subdivision graph S(G) after joining pairs of subdivided vertices that lie on adjacent edges of G and the central graph C(G) of G is obtained from S(G) after joining all non-adjacent vertices of G. We show that if the order of G is at least 4, then Aut(G), Aut(C(G)), and Aut(M(G)) are isomorphic (as abstract groups) and apply these results to obtain new upper bounds of the distinguishing number and the distinguishing index of C(G) and M(G) inspired by an algorithm due to Kalinowski, Pilsniak, and Wozniak from 2016.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2507.16301,
  title  = {Automorphism groups and Distinguishing Colorings of Central and Middle Graphs},
  author = {Amitayu Banerjee and Alexa Gopaulsingh and Zalán Molnár},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2507.16301},
  year   = {2026}
}

Comments

In this revised version, written by the first author, proofs of Propositions 3.2 and 3.3 that were not included in the previous version have been added. Some results have been rewritten and improved, and those not directly related to distinguishing colorings of central and middle graphs have been removed. The manuscript includes five figures