Which maximal subgroups are perfect codes?

Abstract

A perfect code in a graph $\Gamma=(V, E)$ is a subset $C$ of $V$ such that no two vertices in $C$ are adjacent and every vertex in $V \setminus C$ is adjacent to exactly one vertex in $C$. A subgroup $H$ of a group $G$ is called a subgroup perfect code of $G$ if it is a perfect code in some Cayley graph of $G$. In this paper, we undertake a systematic study of which maximal subgroups of a group can be perfect codes. Our approach highlights a characterization of subgroup perfect codes in terms of their ``local'' complements.