English

On Leighton's graph covering theorem

Group Theory 2011-07-29 v2

Abstract

We give short expositions of both Leighton's proof and the Bass-Kulkarni proof of Leighton's graph covering theorem, in the context of colored graphs. We discuss a further generalization, needed elsewhere, to "symmetry-restricted graphs." We can prove it in some cases, for example, if the "graph of colors" is a tree, but we do not know if it is true in general. We show that Bass's Conjugation Theorem, which is a tool in the Bass-Kulkarni approach, does hold in the symmetry-restricted context.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.0906.2496,
  title  = {On Leighton's graph covering theorem},
  author = {Walter D. Neumann},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:0906.2496},
  year   = {2011}
}

Comments

8 pages, 2 figs. v2: Minor changes

R2 v1 2026-06-21T13:13:08.973Z