Information and Locality in Cayley Graphs

Abstract

A de Bruijn sequence is the cyclic prototype of a Cayley-graph observation problem: when does the ordered label word on a translated window $gY$ determine the vertex $g$? We distinguish three parameters. The unrestricted number $\operatorname{sep}_q(G)$ minimizes an arbitrary separating pattern; the connected number $\operatorname{csep}_q(G,S)$ requires a connected Cayley window containing $Y_S=\{1\}\cup S$; and the one-step number $\chi_1(G,S)$ fixes $Y_S$ and minimizes the alphabet. Thus $\operatorname{sep}_q$ is a group-level baseline, $\operatorname{csep}_q$ measures the cost of locality, and $\chi_1$ tests the smallest prescribed local window. The organizing theme is the tension between information and locality. Carbon tori test the gap between $\operatorname{sep}_q$ and $\operatorname{csep}_q$: for generalized dihedral groups $\mathbb{F}_{\ell^d}^{\times}\rtimes C_2$ we prove, for odd prime powers $\ell$, the sharp baseline $\operatorname{sep}_\ell=d+1$ and construct connected zig-zag windows, while the order-$14$ Heawood torus satisfies $\operatorname{sep}_4=2$ and $\operatorname{csep}_4=4$. The spherical $A_5$ example and a finite simple-group comparison test the fixed one-step window: explicit symmetric cubic generating tuples give $\chi_1(A_5,S)=3$ and $\chi_1(\operatorname{PSL}_2(\mathbb{F}_7),S)=4$, both at the counting bound, with structured matrix-coefficient certificates. Cyclic-coset packings, finite-field coordinates, and restricted matrix coefficients are used only as the construction tools these two examples require.