Factorizations of Almost Simple Groups with a Solvable Factor, and Cayley Graphs of Solvable Groups

Let G be a finite group and let cd(G) be the set of irreducible character degrees of G. The degree graph Δ(G) of G is the graph whose set of vertices is the set of primes that divide degrees in cd(G), with an edge between p and q if pq divides a for some degree a ∈ cd(G). In this paper, we determine the graph Δ(G) when G is a finite simple group of exceptional Lie type.

Orbits of plane partitions of exceptional Lie type

Maximal 2-signalizers and centralizers of Sylow 2-subgroups in all finite simple groups are described. Also normalizers are computed for Sylow 2-subgroups in the finite simple groups of exceptional Lie type over a field of odd characteristic.

We obtain upper bounds for the fixed point ratios of the faithful primitive representations of those almost simple finite groups G for which is group of exceptional Lie type of Lie rank 1 or 2. These bounds are shown to be either best possible, or, in the case of very close to best possible.

The cohomology of Chevalley groups of exceptional Lie type

The set π(G) of all prime divisors of the order of a finite group G is often called its prime spectrum. It is proved that every finite simple nonabelian group G has sections H1, …, Hm of some special form such that π(H1)∪…∪π(Hm) = π(G) and m ≤ 5. Moreover, m ≤ 2 if G is an alternating or classical simple group. In all cases, it is possible to choose the sections Hi so that each of them is a simple nonabelian group, a Frobenius group, or (in one case) a dihedral group. If the above equality holds for a finite group G, then we say that the set {H1,…,Hm} controls the prime spectrum of G. We also study some parameter c(G) of finite groups G related to the notion of control.

A ‐tuple of core‐free subgroups of a finite group is said to be regular if has a regular orbit on the Cartesian product . The regularity number of , denoted by , is the smallest positive integer with the property that every such ‐tuple is regular. In this paper, we develop some general methods for studying the regularity of subgroup tuples in arbitrary finite groups, and we determine the precise regularity number of all almost simple groups with an alternating or sporadic socle. For example, we prove that and . We also formulate and investigate natural generalisations of several well‐studied problems on base sizes for finite permutation groups, including conjectures due to Cameron, Pyber and Vdovin. For instance, we extend earlier work of Burness, O'Brien and Wilson by proving that for every almost simple sporadic group, with equality if and only if is the Mathieu group . We also show that every triple of soluble subgroups in an almost simple sporadic group is regular, which generalises recent work of Burness on base sizes for transitive actions of sporadic groups with soluble point stabilisers.

The Weyl group, WG, of each exceptional simple Lie group G, is described in detail. Its structure is defined in terms of its coset decomposition with respect to the Weyl group, WH, of a classical semi-simple Lie group, H, embedded naturally in G. The concepts of G-dominance and G-equivalence are defined and used to determine, from the character formula of Weyl, the branching rule associated with the restriction of group elements from G to H. The Weyl group WG is used further to impose constraints on both the branching multiplicities for G to H and the weight multiplicities of G. These constraints are used to evaluate the weight multiplicities of F4, E6, E7 and E8 together with the branching multiplicities for E8 to SO(16).

We survey recent results regarding embeddings of finite simple groups (and their nonsplit central extensions) in complex Lie groups, especially the Lie groups of exceptional type. Introduction Throughout this paper, L will be a finite group. Representation theory for L is usually understood to be the study of group morphisms L → GL(n, k) for distinguished collections of fields k (e.g., all overfields of a fixed field F ) and positive integers n . The topic of this survey is motivated by the question as to what happens if GL ( n ,·) is replaced by another algebraic group G (·). We shall mainly be concerned with the case where L is a finite simple group (that is, a finite nonabelian simple group) or a central extension thereof, and G(k) is a connected simple algebraic group over a field k . A further restriction of our discussion concerns the field k . It will mostly be taken to be the complex numbers, in which case we will mainly study group morphisms from L to the complex Lie group G (ℂ). (See below for some exceptions in §3 and §5.) For G (·) of classical type, the theory for representations L → G (ℂ) differs little from the usual one for GL ( n , ℂ). Indeed, a representation L → GL ( n , ℂ) decomposes into irreducible subrepresentations. The decomposition is well controlled by character theory.

By a classical theorem of Jordan, every faithful transitive action of a non‐trivial finite group has a derangement (an element with no fixed points). The existence of derangements with additional properties has attracted much attention, especially for faithful primitive actions of almost simple groups. In this paper, we show that an almost simple group can have an element that is a derangement in every faithful primitive action, and we call these elements totally deranged. In fact, we classify the totally deranged elements of all almost simple groups, showing that an almost simple group contains a totally deranged element only if the socle of is or with . Using this, we classify the invariable generating sets of a finite simple group of the form where and , answering a question of Garzoni. As a final application, we classify the elements of almost simple groups that are contained in a unique maximal subgroup in the case where is not core‐free, which complements the recent work of Guralnick and Tracey addressing the case where is core‐free.

The workshop Permutation groups organised by Robert Guralnick (Southern California), Cheryl Praeger (Western Australia), Jan Saxl (Cambridge) and Katrin Tent (Bielefeld) was held August 5th–11th, 2007. The focus was recent developments in permutation group theory and their influence on, and from, group representation theory, algebraic graph theory and other areas of geometry and combinatorics, algebraic geometry, model theory and infinite symmetrical structures. It was well attended with 50 participants. Especially valuable was the program to support young researchers which gave the opportunity for a considerable number of young mathematicians to participate in the workshop. They benefited from the ‘Oberwolfach experience’ and also enlivened and contributed enormously to the success of the meeting. The workshop had a friendly and vibrant atmosphere, aided by the excellent facilities of the Institute. All participants appreciated the beautiful lecture by John G. Thompson entitled ‘The divisor matrix and {\rm SL}(2,\Z) ’. (In fact, this meeting was the first Oberwolfach workshop in over twenty years that Thompson had attended.) There were 26 other talks, and the program featured in each of the first five sessions at least one talk by a student or young researcher at the beginning of their career. This facilitated interaction between younger and more established researchers. The number of talks was restricted to give plenty of time for discussion and cooperation among the participants. Other communications were presented as posters. Highlights of the workshop addressed both fundamental permutation group theory, and also significant outcomes from applying permutation group theory and methods in combinatorics, model theory and other areas. Some topics arose in more than one context, forming new connections. A common feature of many contributions was application of the finite simple group classification, or new results on the structure of simple groups. As examples, we mention two highlights reported by early career participants. The question of base size of permutation actions is of importance in computational group theory as well as in the study of the graph isomorphism problem. Recent research has thrown much light on the base sizes of actions of almost simple groups in particular. Burness reported on the very recent proof of a conjecture of Cameron and Kantor dating from 1993 concerning non-standard permutation actions of almost simple groups: these are all primitive actions apart from actions of alternating and symmetric groups on subsets or partitions, and of classical groups on subspaces or pairs of complementary subspaces. In all the latter families the minimum base size is unbounded as the group order increases. The somewhat surprising conjecture, now proved, is that the minimum base size of non-standard permutation groups is at most 7, with the unique example where this bound is attained being the Mathieu group M_{24} in its natural action on 24 points. Expander graphs play an important role in computer science and combinatorics, and, for example, are significant in modelling and analysing communication networks. In particular, their diameters grow only logarithmically with the numbers of vertices. This property on diameters was proved in 1989 by Babai, Kantor and Lubotzky to hold for suitable Cayley graphs of simple groups: specifically for each finite nonabelian simple group G , they constructed a valency 7 Cayley graph for G with diameter at most a constant times \log(|G|) . Although their graphs were not expanders, they conjectured that there exists an absolute constant k such that all infinite families of simple groups give rise to families of valency k Cayley graphs that are expanders. Kassabov lectured on amazing progress towards proving this conjecture – it is now proved for all simple groups apart from the Suzuki groups. It was a very happy and successful workshop. Indeed, several of the most distinguished participants commented that this was one of the best Oberwolfach meetings they had attended, with plenty of time for collaboration, and outstanding talks. Extended abstracts of the talks mentioned, as well as all the others, are given below (in the order in which they were presented).

Let G be a finite nonabelian group and associate a disoriented noncommuting graph ∇(G) with G as follows: the vertex set of ∇(G) is G\Z(G) with two vertices x and y joined by an edge whenever the commutator of x and y is not the identity. In 1987, J. G. Thompson gave the following conjecture.Thompson's Conjecture If G is a finite group with Z(G) = 1 and M is a nonabelian simple group satisfying N(G) = N(M), then G ≅ M, where N(G) denotes the set of the sizes of the conjugacy classes of G.In 2006, A. Abdollahi, S. Akbari and H. R. Maimani put forward a conjecture in [1] as follows.AAM's Conjecture Let M be a finite nonabelian simple group and G a group such that ∇(G)≅ ∇ (M). Then G ≅ M.Even though both of the two conjectures are known to be true for all finite simple groups with nonconnected prime graphs, it is still unknown for almost all simple groups with connected prime graphs. In the present paper, we prove that the second conjecture is true for the projective special unitary simple group U4(7).

In this article, we study 2-(v, k, λ) designs D with λ prime admitting flag-transitive and point-primitive almost simple automorphism groups G with socle T a finite exceptional simple group or a sporadic simple group. If the socle of G is a finite exceptional simple group, then we prove that D is isomorphic to one of two infinite families of 2-designs with point-primitive automorphism groups, one is the Suzuki-Tits ovoid design with parameter set (v, b, r, k, λ) = (q² + 1, q²(q² + 1)/(q − 1), q², q, q − 1), where q − 1 is a Mersenne prime, and the other is newly constructed in this paper and has parameter set (v, b, r, k, λ) = (q³(q³ − 1)/2, (q + 1)(q⁶ − 1), (q + 1)(q³ + 1), q³/2, q + 1), where q + 1 a Fermat prime. If T is a sporadic simple group, then we show that D is isomorphic to a unique design admitting a point-primitive automorphism group with parameter set (v, b, r, k, λ) = (176, 1100, 50, 2), (12, 22, 11, 6, 5) or (22, 77, 21, 6, 5).

We address the question: for which collections of finite simple groups does there exist an algorithm that determines the images of an arbitrary finitely presented group that lie in the collection? We prove both positive and negative results. For a collection of finite simple groups that contains infinitely many alternating groups, or contains classical groups of unbounded dimensions, we prove that there is no such algorithm. On the other hand, for families of simple groups of Lie type of bounded rank, we obtain positive results. For example, for any fixed untwisted Lie type X there is an algorithm that determines whether or not any given finitely presented group has simple images of the form X(q) for infinitely many q, and if there are finitely many, the algorithm determines them.

On solvable factors of almost simple groups