Primitive groups and synchronization

Abstract: Let $\Omega$ be a set of cardinality $n$, $G$ a permutation group on $\Omega$, and $f:\Omega\to\Omega$ a map which is not a permutation. We say that $G$ \emph{synchronizes} $f$ if the transformation semigroup $\langle G,f\rangle$ contains a constant map, and that $G$ is a \emph{synchronizing group} if $G$ synchronizes \emph{every} non-permutation. A synchronizing group is necessarily primitive, but there are primitive groups that are not synchronizing. Every non-synchronizing primitive group fails to synchronize at least one uniform transformation (that is, transformation whose kernel has parts of equal size), and it has previously been conjectured that a primitive group synchronizes every non-uniform transformation. The first goal of this paper is to prove that this conjecture is false, by exhibiting primitive groups that fail to synchronize specific non-uniform transformations of ranks $5$ and $6$. In addition we produce graphs whose automorphism groups have approximately $\sqrt{n}$ \emph{non-synchronizing ranks}, thus refuting another conjecture on the number of non-synchronizing ranks of a primitive group. The second goal of this paper is to extend the spectrum of ranks for which it is known that primitive groups synchronize every non-uniform transformation of that rank. It has previously been shown that a primitive group of degree $n$ synchronizes every non-uniform transformation of rank $n-1$ and $n-2$, and here this is extended to $n-3$ and $n-4$. Determining the exact spectrum of ranks for which there exist non-uniform transformations not synchronized by some primitive group is just one of several natural, but possibly difficult, problems on automata, primitive groups, graphs and computational algebra arising from this work; these are outlined in the final section.