Characterizing subgroup perfect codes by 2-subgroups

Abstract

A perfect code in a graph $\Gamma$ is a subset $C$ of $V(\Gamma)$ such that no two vertices in $C$ are adjacent and every vertex in $V(\Gamma)\setminus C$ is adjacent to exactly one vertex in $C$. Let $G$ be a finite group and $C$ a subset of $G$. Then $C$ is said to be a perfect code of $G$ if there exists a Cayley graph of $G$ admiting $C$ as a perfect code. It is proved that a subgroup $H$ of $G$ is a perfect code of $G$ if and only if a Sylow $2$-subgroup of $H$ is a perfect code of $G$. This result provides a way to simplify the study of subgroup perfect codes of general groups to the study of subgroup perfect codes of $2$-groups. As an application, a criterion for determining subgroup perfect codes of projective special linear groups $\mathrm{PSL}(2,q)$ is given.