Möbius–Kantor graph | |
---|---|
Named after | August Ferdinand Möbius and S. Kantor |
Vertices | 16 |
Edges | 24 |
Radius | 4 |
Diameter | 4 |
Girth | 6 |
Automorphisms | 96 |
Chromatic number | 2 |
Chromatic index | 3 |
Genus | 1 |
Properties |
Symmetric Hamiltonian Bipartite Cubic Unit distance Cayley graph Perfect Orientably simple |
In the mathematical field of graph theory, the Möbius–Kantor graph is a symmetric bipartite cubic graph with 16 vertices and 24 edges named after August Ferdinand Möbius and Seligmann Kantor. It can be defined as the generalized Petersen graph G(8,3): that is, it is formed by the vertices of an octagon, connected to the vertices of an eight-point star in which each point of the star is connected to the points three steps away from it.
Möbius (1828) asked whether there exists a pair of polygons with p sides each, having the property that the vertices of one polygon lie on the lines through the edges of the other polygon, and vice versa. If so, the vertices and edges of these polygons would form a projective configuration. For p = 4 there is no solution in the Euclidean plane, but Kantor (1882) found pairs of polygons of this type, for a generalization of the problem in which the points and edges belong to the complex projective plane. That is, in Kantor's solution, the coordinates of the polygon vertices are complex numbers. Kantor's solution for p = 4, a pair of mutually-inscribed quadrilaterals in the complex projective plane, is called the Möbius–Kantor configuration. The Möbius–Kantor graph derives its name from being the Levi graph of the Möbius–Kantor configuration. It has one vertex per point and one vertex per triple, with an edge connecting two vertices if they correspond to a point and to a triple that contains that point.
The configuration may also be described algebraically in terms of the abelian group with nine elements. This group has four subgroups of order three (the subsets of elements of the form , , , and respectively), each of which can be used to partition the nine group elements into three cosets of three elements per coset. These nine elements and twelve cosets form a configuration, the Hesse configuration. Removing the zero element and the four cosets containing zero gives rise to the Möbius–Kantor configuration.