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Statement

Printed pp. 25--26, Section 1 ("The 7-cube minus a Hamming code"), read on the page images of the version of record named on the source card. The section has no theorem label; its results are the numbered properties (1) to (6) on p. 26, and this page is named for the section.

Setting (p. 25). The vertices of the hypercube on a set II are the subsets of II, a vector space over F2\mathbb F_2 under symmetric difference x+yx+y, with x∼yx\sim y when ∣x+y∣=1|x+y|=1. Take I=Z7I=\mathbb Z_7 and let HH consist of ∅\emptyset, the seven sets {1+i,2+i,4+i}\{1+i,2+i,4+i\} (i∈Ii\in I), and the complements of these eight sets. The paper states that HH is a subspace and a perfect 11-error-correcting code, hence a Hamming code: its vertices are pairwise nonadjacent and every vertex outside HH has exactly one neighbor in HH. The subgraph Γ\Gamma of the 77-cube induced by X=2I∖HX=2^I\setminus H has 112112 vertices, is regular of valency 66, and is vertex-transitive.

The coloring (pp. 25--26). For an edge xyxy of Γ\Gamma with xx of odd weight, define i,j∈Ii,j\in I by x+{i}∈Hx+\{i\}\in H and y=x+{j}y=x+\{j\}; the edge is red when j−i∈{1,2,4}j-i\in\{1,2,4\} and white otherwise. ΓR\Gamma_R and ΓW\Gamma_W are the red and white subgraphs, both on the vertex set XX.

Properties (p. 26). The paper states, with short indications for (1) to (3) and (6):

  1. ΓR≅ΓW\Gamma_R\cong\Gamma_W; for odd-weight u∈Hu\in H, x↦x+ux\mapsto x+u is an isomorphism.
  2. "Aut(ΓR)=Aut(ΓW)\mathrm{Aut}(\Gamma_R)=\mathrm{Aut}(\Gamma_W) is solvable of order 168, acts (sharply) transitively on the edges of both ΓR\Gamma_R and ΓW\Gamma_W, and has two orbits on their vertex set XX." The group is generated by the translations by members of the even-weight subcode H0H_0 of HH, the cyclic shifts of II, and the permutation i↦2ii\mapsto2i of II.
  3. "ΓR\Gamma_R has diameter 8; for any vertex xx of odd weight there is a unique antipode x+{i,i+3,i+5,i+6}x+\{i,i+3,i+5,i+6\} at distance 8, where ii is determined by x+{i}∈Hx+\{i\}\in H; no two vertices of even weight have distance 8."
  4. Every quadrangle of Γ\Gamma has three edges of one color and one of the other. If xyxy is a white edge, then xx and yy are at distance 33 in ΓR\Gamma_R, joined there by a unique path x∼u∼v∼yx\sim u\sim v\sim y.
  5. "ΓR\Gamma_R has girth 10."
  6. "ΓR\Gamma_R is an 8-cover of the Heawood graph, the point-line incidence graph of the Fano plane." Identifying vertices of ΓR\Gamma_R that differ by an element of H0H_0 gives a graph isomorphic to the Heawood graph on I∪I′I\cup I', with i∼j′i\sim j' if and only if i−j∈{1,2,4}i-j\in\{1,2,4\}.

So ΓR\Gamma_R and ΓW\Gamma_W are isomorphic cubic graphs of girth 1010 on 112112 vertices that are edge-transitive but not vertex-transitive, as the abstract (p. 25) puts it.

The three-coloring (p. 25). The paper notes that once both color classes have girth 1010, "it follows that the edges of 2I2^I can be colored with three colors such that there are no monochromatic gg-gons for g<10g<10." Section 3 (p. 28) recalls this as a three-coloring of the edges of the nn-cube without monochromatic quadrangle or hexagon for n≤7n\le7.

Attribution and identification (pp. 26 and 28). The paper says the graph was constructed in Dejter and Guan (its reference [7]) and may be the graph R. M. Foster constructed according to Bouwer (reference [2]). A remark added in proof (p. 28) states that it differs from the unique trivalent graph on 112112 vertices with girth 1010 in Foster's census, since it is not vertex-transitive.

Source. A. E. Brouwer, I. J. Dejter and C. Thomassen, Highly symmetric subgraphs of hypercubes, J. Algebraic Combin. 2 (1993), 25--29, doi:10.1023/A:1022472513494; Section 1 on printed pp. 25--26, the remark added in proof on p. 28.

Read depth. Claims checked: the setting, the coloring and properties (1) to (6) were read clause by clause on the page images of printed pp. 25--26. The paper's indications of proof were read but not checked; properties (4) to (6) are stated without proof apart from the identification in (6).

Proof pointer

Pp. 25--26. Property (1) is witnessed by translation by an odd-weight codeword; for (2) the paper exhibits the group of order 168 and shows it is sharply edge-transitive, preserving the parity of the weight; (3) is verified by growing the distance classes from x={1}x=\{1\} and x={0,1}x=\{0,1\}, which the paper says also shows that the full automorphism group is no larger than the group of (2); (6) is the quotient by H0H_0. Not checked here.

Dependencies

Self-contained; the facts that HH is a perfect code and a subspace are stated in the paper as standard.

Bears on

No Erdős problem directly. The three-coloring it yields for n≤7n\le7 is context for Section 3, whose four-coloring the paper uses against Erdős's hexagon conjecture.