Generalized symmetry of graphs — A survey

Abstract

Symmetry of graphs has been extensively studied over the past fifty years by using automorphisms of graphs and group theory which have played and still play an important role for graph theory, and promising and interesting results have been obtained, see for examples, [L.W. Beineke, R.J. Wilson, Topics in Algebraic Graph Theory, Cambridge University Press, London, 2004; N. Biggs, Algebraic Graph Theory, Cambridge University Press, London, 1993; C. Godsil, C. Royle, Algebraic graph theory, Springer-Verlag, London, 2001; G. Hahn, G. Sabidussi, Graph Symmetry: Algebraic Methods and Application, in: NATO ASI Series C, vol. 497, Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht, 1997]. We introduced generalized symmetry of graphs and investigated it by using endomorphisms of graphs and semigroup theory. In this paper, we will survey some results we have achieved in recent years. The paper consists of the following sections. 1. Introduction 2. End-regular graphs 3. End-transitive graphs 4. Unretractive graphs 5. Graphs and their endomorphism monoids.