Bounding $s$ for vertex-primitive $s$-arc-transitive digraphs of alternating and symmetric groups

Abstract

Determining an upper bound on $s$ for finite vertex-primitive $s$-arc-transitive digraphs has received considerable attention dating back to a question of Praeger in 1990. It was shown by Giudici and Xia that the smallest upper bound on $s$ is attained for some digraph admitting an almost simple $s$-arc-transitive group. In this paper, based on the work of Pan, Wu and Yin, we prove that $s⩽2$ in the case where the group is an alternating or symmetric group.