Pentavalent symmetric graphs admitting vertex-transitive non-abelian simple groups

Abstract

A graph \Gamma is said to be {\em symmetric} if its automorphism group \Aut(\Gamma) is transitive on the arc set of \Gamma. Let $G$ be a finite non-abelian simple group and let \Gamma be a connected pentavalent symmetric graph such that G\leq \Aut(\Gamma). In this paper, we show that if $G$ is transitive on the vertex set of \Gamma, then either G\unlhd \Aut(\Gamma) or \Aut(\Gamma) contains a non-abelian simple normal subgroup $T$ such that $G\leq T$ and $(G,T)$ is one of $58$ possible pairs of non-abelian simple groups. In particular, if $G$ is arc-transitive, then $(G,T)$ is one of $17$ possible pairs, and if $G$ is regular on the vertex set of \Gamma, then $(G,T)$ is one of $13$ possible pairs, which improves the result on pentavalent symmetric Cayley graph given by Fang, Ma and Wang in 2011.