Petersen Graph - Symmetries

Symmetries

The Petersen graph is strongly regular (with signature srg(10,3,0,1)). It is also symmetric, meaning that it is edge transitive and vertex transitive. More strongly, it is 3-arc-transitive: every directed three-edge path in the Petersen graph can be transformed into every other such path by a symmetry of the graph. It is one of only 13 cubic distance-regular graphs.

The automorphism group of the Petersen graph is the symmetric group ; the action of on the Petersen graph follows from its construction as a Kneser graph. Every homomorphism of the Petersen graph to itself that doesn't identify adjacent vertices is an automorphism. As shown in the figures, the drawings of the Petersen graph may exhibit five-way or three-way symmetry, but it is not possible to draw the Petersen graph in the plane in such a way that the drawing exhibits the full symmetry group of the graph.

Despite its high degree of symmetry, the Petersen graph is not a Cayley graph. It is the smallest vertex-transitive graph that is not a Cayley graph.

Read more about this topic:  Petersen Graph