On the maximal subgroups of finite simple groups

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.

Generation and random generation: From simple groups to maximal subgroups

Finite simple nonabelian groups G that are not π-closed for some set of primes π but have π-closed maximal subgroups (property (*) for (G, π)) are studied. We give a list L of finite simple groups that contains any group G with the above property (for some π). It is proved that 2 ∉ π for any pair (G, π) with property (*) (Theorem 1). In addition, we specify for any sporadic simple group G from L all sets of primes π such that the pair (G, π) has property (*) (Theorem 2). The proof uses the author’s results on the control of prime spectra of finite simple groups.

We prove that Hall subgroups of finite simple groups are pronormal. Thus we obtain an affirmative answer to Problem 17.45(a) of "Kourovka notebook".

A subgroup H of a finite group G is called c-normal in G if there exists a normal subgroup N of G such that G = HN and $H \cap N \leq H_{G} = {\rm core}_{G}(H)$. In this paper, we investigate the class of groups of which every maximal subgroup of its Sylow p-subgroup is c-normal and the class of groups of which some minimal subgroups of its Sylow p-subgroup is c-normal for some prime number p. Some interesting results are obtained and consequently, many known results related to p-nilpotent groups and p-supersolvable groups are generalized.

In [Li and Chen, A new characterization of the simple group [Formula: see text], Sib. Math. J. 53(2) (2012) 213–247.], it is proved that the simple group [Formula: see text] is uniquely determined by the set of orders of its maximal abelian subgroups. Also in [Momen and Khosravi, Groups with the same orders of maximal abelian subgroups as [Formula: see text], Monatsh. Math. 174 (2013) 285–303], the authors proved that if [Formula: see text], where [Formula: see text] is not a Mersenne prime, then every finite group with the same orders of maximal abelian subgroups as [Formula: see text], is isomorphic to [Formula: see text] or an extension of [Formula: see text] by a subgroup of the outer automorphism group of [Formula: see text]. In this paper, we prove that if [Formula: see text] is a finite group with the same orders of maximal abelian subgroups as [Formula: see text], then [Formula: see text] has a unique nonabelian composition factor which is isomorphic to [Formula: see text].

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.

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.

Given a set π of primes, say that a finite group G satisfies the Sylow π-theorem if every two maximal π-subgroups of G are conjugate; equivalently, the full analog of the Sylow theorem holds for π-subgroups. Say also that a finite group G satisfies the Baer-Suzuki π-theorem if every conjugacy class of G every pair of whose elements generate a π-subgroup itself generates a π-subgroup. In this article we prove, using the classification of finite simple groups, that if a finite group satisfies the Sylow π-theorem then it satisfies the Baer-Suzuki π-theorem as well.

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).

We prove two conjectures of E. Khukhro and P. Shumyatsky concerning the Fitting height and insoluble length of finite groups. As a by-product of our methods, we also prove a generalization of a result of Flavell, which itself generalizes Wielandt's Zipper Lemma and provides a characterization of subgroups contained in a unique maximal subgroup. We also derive a number of consequences of our theorems, including some applications to the set of odd order elements of a finite group inverted by an involutory automorphism.

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.

We distinguish 2-maximal and strictly 2-maximal subgroups of a finite group and give examples of soluble and simple groups in which every 2-maximal subgroup is strictly 2-maximal. Let M be a maximal subgroup of a group G. We prove that every maximal subgroup of M is strictly 2-maximal in G if M is normal in G or if G is p-soluble and We describe the structure of a finite group in which all 2-maximal subgroups are Hall subgroups. In particular, it has a Sylow tower and all its Sylow subgroups are elementary abelian.

Let $$I_n(G)$$ denote the number of elements of order n in a finite group G. In 1979, Herzog (Proc Am Math Soc 77:313–314, 1979) conjectured that two finite simple groups containing the same number of involutions have the same order. In a 2018 paper (Arch Math 111:349–351, 2018), Zarrin disproved Herzog’s conjecture with a counterexample. Then he conjectured that “if S is a non-abelian simple group and G a group such that $$I_2(G)=I_2(S)$$ and $$I_p(G) =I_p(S)$$ for some odd prime divisor p, then $$|G|=|S|$$ ”. In this paper, we give more counterexamples to Herzog’s conjecture. Moreover, we disprove Zarrin’s conjecture.

Let G be a finite 2-generated non-cyclic group. The spread of G is the largest integer k such that for any nontrivial elements x1,…,xk, there exists y G ∈ G such that G = 〈xi,y〉 for all i. The more restrictive notion of uniform spread, denoted u(G), requires y to be chosen from a fixed conjugacy class of G, and a theorem of Breuer, Guralnick and Kantor states that u(G) ⩾ 2 for every non-abelian finite simple group G. For any group with u(G) ⩾ 1, we define the uniform domination number γu(G) of G to be the minimal size of a subset S of conjugate elements such that for each nontrivial x ∈ G there exists y ∈ S with G = 〈x, y〉 (in this situation, we say that S is a uniform dominating set for G). We introduced the latter notion in a recent paper, where we used probabilistic methods to determine close to best possible bounds on γu(G) for all simple groups G.In this paper we establish several new results on the spread, uniform spread and uniform domination number of finite groups and finite simple groups. For example, we make substantial progress towards a classification of the simple groups G with γu (G) = 2, and we study the associated probability that two randomly chosen conjugate elements form a uniform dominating set for G. We also establish new results concerning the 2-generation of soluble and symmetric groups, and we present several open problems.