English

On the structure of the power graph and the enhanced power graph of a group

Combinatorics 2019-05-31 v1 Group Theory

Abstract

Let GG be a group. The \emph{power graph} of GG is a graph with the vertex set GG, having an edge between two elements whenever one is a power of the other. We characterize nilpotent groups whose power graphs have finite independence number. For a bounded exponent group, we prove its power graph is a perfect graph and we determine its clique/chromatic number. Furthermore, it is proved that for every group GG, the clique number of the power graph of GG is at most countably infinite. We also measure how close the power graph is to the \emph{commuting graph} by introducing a new graph which lies in between. We call this new graph as the \emph{enhanced power graph}. For an arbitrary pair of these three graphs we characterize finite groups for which this pair of graphs are equal.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1603.04337,
  title  = {On the structure of the power graph and the enhanced power graph of a group},
  author = {Ghodratollah Aalipour and Saieed Akbari and Peter J. Cameron and Reza Nikandish and Farzad Shaveisi},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1603.04337},
  year   = {2019}
}