Can connected commuting graphs of finite groups have arbitrarily large diameter ?

Abstract

We present a family of finite, non-abelian groups and propose that there are members of this family whose commuting graphs are connected and of arbitrarily large diameter. If true, this would disprove a conjecture of Iranmanesh and Jafarzadeh. While unable to prove our claim, we present a heuristic argument in favour of it. We also present the results of simulations which yielded explicit examples of groups whose commuting graphs have all possible diameters up to and including 10. Previously, no finite group whose commuting graph had diameter greater than 6 was known.