English

Counting edges of different types in a local graph of a Grassmann graph

Combinatorics 2025-09-19 v3

Abstract

Let Fq\mathbb{F}_q denote a finite field with qq elements. Let n,kn,k denote integers with n>2k6n>2k\geq 6. Let VV denote a vector space over Fq\mathbb{F}_{q} that has dimension nn. The vertex set of the Grassmann graph Jq(n,k)J_q(n,k) consists of the kk-dimensional subspaces of VV. Two vertices of Jq(n,k)J_q(n,k) are adjacent whenever their intersection has dimension k1k-1. Let \partial denote the path-length distance function of Jq(n,k)J_q(n,k). Pick a vertex yy. In this paper we define three types of edges in XX, namely type 00, type ++, and type -; for adjacent vertices w,zw,z such that (w,y)=(z,y)\partial(w,y)=\partial(z,y), the type of the edge wzwz depends on the subspaces w+z,w,z,wzw+z,w,z,w\cap z and their intersections with yy. Pick a vertex xx such that 1<(x,y)<k1<\partial(x,y)<k. Let Γ(x)\Gamma(x) denote the local graph of xx in Jq(n,k)J_q(n,k). Our general goal is to count the number of edges in Γ(x)\Gamma(x) for each type. Consider a two-vertex stabilizer Stab(x,y)\text{Stab}(x,y) in GL(V)GL(V); it is known that the Stab(x,y)\text{Stab}(x,y)-action on Γ(x)\Gamma(x) has five orbits. Pick two orbits O,N\mathcal{O},\mathcal{N} that are not necessarily distinct; for a given wOw\in \mathcal{O}, we find the number of vertices in zNz\in \mathcal{N} such that the edge wzwz has (i) type 00, (ii) type ++, (iii) type -. To find these numbers, we use many results that involve a projective geometry Pq(n)P_q(n), which is the set of all subspaces of VV.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2506.18700,
  title  = {Counting edges of different types in a local graph of a Grassmann graph},
  author = {Ian Seong},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2506.18700},
  year   = {2025}
}

Comments

22 pages, 3 figures