On the minimum degree of the power graph of a finite cyclic group

Abstract

The power graph [Formula: see text] of a finite group [Formula: see text] is the undirected simple graph whose vertex set is [Formula: see text], in which two distinct vertices are adjacent if one of them is an integral power of the other. For an integer [Formula: see text], let [Formula: see text] denote the cyclic group of order [Formula: see text] and let [Formula: see text] be the number of distinct prime divisors of [Formula: see text]. The minimum degree [Formula: see text] of [Formula: see text] is known for [Formula: see text], see [R. P. Panda and K. V. Krishna, On the minimum degree, edge-connectivity and connectivity of power graphs of finite groups, Comm. Algebra 46(7) (2018) 3182–3197]. For [Formula: see text], under certain conditions involving the prime divisors of [Formula: see text], we identify at most [Formula: see text] vertices such that [Formula: see text] is equal to the degree of at least one of these vertices. If [Formula: see text], or that [Formula: see text] is a product of distinct primes, we are able to identify two such vertices without any condition on the prime divisors of [Formula: see text].