On the subdirect product of graph bundles

Abstract

The subdirect product of two finite groups A and B is defined as a subgroup of the direct product A × B. Although it is clear that, under appropriate choices of sets of generators S, SA, and SB, the Cayley graph Cay(A × B, S) corresponds to the Cartesian product Cay(A, SA)□Cay(B, SB) of two graphs, there is no analogue at the level of graph product that reflects the notion of subdirect product of groups. This is precisely the problem we discuss here. By using the concept of graph bundles and introducing the corresponding pullbacks we define an operation on graph bundles such that the Cayley graph of the subdirect product of two groups can be described as the total space of the product of the Cayley graphs. This allows us to define the so-called “network K-theory group of a graph”, inspired by the notion of topological K-theory, and we are able to investigate an interesting functor from the category of graphs to the category of Abelian groups.