Bounding the order of the vertex-stabiliser in 3-valent vertex-transitive and 4-valent arc-transitive graphs

Abstract

The main result of this paper is that, if $\Gamma$ is a connected 4-valent $G$-arc-transitive graph and $v$ is a vertex of $\Gamma$, then either $\Gamma$ is one of a well understood infinite family of graphs, or $|G_v|\leq 2^43^6$ or $2|G_v|\log_2(|G_v|/2)\leq |\V\Gamma|$ and that this last bound is tight. As a corollary, we get a similar result for $3$-valent vertex-transitive graphs.