Subgroup perfect codes of $S_n$ in Cayley sum graphs

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 $C$. Let $ G $ be a finite group, and let $ S $ be a square-free normal subset of $ G $. The Cayley sum graph of $ G $ with respect to $ S $ is a simple graph with vertex set $ G $ and two vertices $ x $ and $ y $ are adjacent if $ xy\in S .$ A subset $ C $ of $ G $ is called perfect code of $ G $ if there exists a Cayley sum graph of $ G $ that admits $ C $ as a perfect code. In particular, if a subgroup of $ G $ is a perfect code of $ G $, then the subgroup is called a subgroup perfect code of $ G $. In this work, we prove that there does not exist any proper perfect subgroup code of symmetric group $ S_n $. Using this result, we provide a complete characterization of the perfect subgroup code of the alternating group $A_n$.