On symmetric Cayley graphs of valency thirteen

Abstract

A Cayley graph $\Ga=\Cay(G,S)$ is said to be normal if the right-regular representation of $G$ is normal in $\Aut\Ga$. In this paper, we investigate the normality problem of the connected 13-valent symmetric Cayley graphs $\Ga$ of finite nonabelian simple groups $G$, where the vertex stabilizer $\A_v$ is soluble for $\A=\Aut\Ga$ and $v\in V\Ga$. We prove that $\Ga$ is either normal or $G=\A_{12}$, $\A_{38}$, $\A_{116}$, $\A_{207}$, $\A_{311}$, $\A_{935}$ or $\A_{1871}$. Further, 13-valent symmetric non-normal Cayley graphs of $\A_{38}$, $\A_{116}$ and $\A_{207}$ are constructed. This provides some more examples of non-normal 13-valent symmetric Cayley graphs of finite nonabelian simple groups since such graph (of valency 13) was first constructed by Fang, Ma and Wang in (J. Comb. Theory A 118, 1039--1051, 2011).