[Math] Cayley graph of a non-abelian finite group that is not isomorphic to any Cayley graph of any abelian group

cayley-graphsfinite-groupsgr.group-theorygraph theory

It's the first question I post here 🙂 I'm sorry if the question is too specific or if it's somehow repeating others.

In other words, my question is the following. Consider a Cayley graph $\Gamma$ of a non-abelian group. Consider also the family $\mathcal{F}$ of Cayley graphs of abelian groups. Is there $\Gamma$ such that, for all $\Gamma~' \in \mathcal{F}$, $\Gamma$ is not isomorphic to $\Gamma~'$?

I've read some interesting posts such as:

  • Non-isomorphic groups with the same oriented Cayley graph;
  • Does a Cayley graph on a minimal symmetric set of generators determine a finite group up to isomorphism?.

However, I haven't made any progress towards the answer.

Best Answer

If I understand my own 1979 catalogue of small transitive graphs, this happens first at 12 vertices. The simplest example to describe (L10 in the catalogue): take the tetrahedon and cut off each of the corners to make a little triangle; the skeleton is a cubic cayley graph but not of an abelian group.

One very simple observation is that cayley graphs of abelian groups generally have lots of 4-cycles formed by edges $g$, $h$, $g^{-1}$, $h^{-1}$ from two of the generators. So, a cayley graph of degree at least 3 without 4-cycles is not a cayley graph of an abelian group. Like the example I gave.