Graphs in the 3--sphere with maximum symmetry

Chao Wang, Shicheng Wang, Yimu Zhang, Bruno Zimmermann

Published 2015-10-03Version 1

We consider the orientation preserving actions of finite groups $G$ on pairs $(S^3, \Gamma)$, where $\Gamma$ is a connected graph of genus $g>1$, embedded in $S^3$. For each $g$ we give the maximum order $m_g$ of such $G$ acting on $(S^3, \Gamma)$ for all such $\Gamma\subset S^3$. Indeed we will classify all graphs $\Gamma\subset S^3$ which realize these $m_g$ in different levels: as abstract graphs and as spatial graphs, as well as their group actions. Such maximum orders without the condition "orientation preserving" are also addressed.