There are several examples in the literature of finite non-abelian $p$-groups whose automorphism group is abelian. For some time only examples that were special $p$-groups were known, until Jain and Yadav [JY12] and Jain, Rai and Yadav [JRY13] constructed several non-special examples. In this paper we show how a simple module-theoretic approach allows the construction of non-special examples, starting from special ones constructed by several authors, while at the same time avoiding further direct calculations.
In this article we present an extensive survey on the developments in the theory of non-abelian finite groups with abelian automorphism groups, and pose some problems and further research directions.
Let $1 \to N \to G \to H \to 1$ be an abelian extension. The purpose of this paper is to study the problem of extending automorphisms of $N$ and lifting automorphisms of $H$ to certain automorphisms of $G$.
We will show that every element of a finitely generated abelian group is automorphically equivalent what we will define to be a {\em representative element} in a {\em repeat-free subgroup}, and for finite abelian groups we can count the number of automorphism classes of elements.
Among other things, we prove that the group of automorphisms fixing every normal subgroup of a nilpotent-by-abelian group is nilpotent-by-metabelian. In particular, the group of automorphisms fixing every normal subgroup of a metabelian group is soluble of derived length at most 3. An example shows that this bound cannot be improved.
Let G be an abelian p-group sum of finite homocyclic groups Gi. Here, we determine in which cases the automorphism group of G splits over ker(h), where h: Aut(G)-->Xi Aut(Gi/pGi) is the natural epimorphism.
For a positive integer $n$, with $n \geq 4$, let $R_{n}$ be a free (nilpotent of class 2)-by-abelian and abelian-by-(nilpotent of class 2) Lie algebra of rank $n$. We show that the subgroup of Aut$(R_{n})$ generated by the tame automorphisms and a countably infinite set of explicitly given automorphisms of $R_{n}$ is dense in Aut$(R_{n})$ with respect to the formal power series topology.
We construct, for the first time, various types of specific non-special finite $p$-groups having abelian automorphism group. More specifically, we construct groups $G$ with abelian automorphism group such that $γ_2(G) < \mathrm{Z}(G) < Φ(G)$, where $γ_2(G)$, $\mathrm{Z}(G)$ and $Φ(G)$ denote the commutator subgroup, the center and the Frattini subgroup of $G$ respectively. For a finite $p$-group $G$ with elementary abelian automorphism group, we show that at least one of the following two conditions holds true: (i) $\mathrm{Z}(G) = Φ(G)$ is elementary abelian; (ii) $γ_2(G) = Φ(G)$ is elementar…
We investigate the endomorphism monoids of certain finite $p$-groups of order $p^8$ first studied by Jonah and Konvisser in 1975 as examples for finite $p$-groups with abelian automorphism group, and we show some necessary conditions for a finite $p$-group to have commutative endomorphism monoid. As a by-product, apart from formulas for the number of conjugacy classes of endomorphisms of said groups, we will be able to derive the following: There exist nonabelian groups with commutative endomorphism monoid, and having commutative endomorphism monoid is a group property strictly stronger than h…
We study the group $IAut(A)$ generated by the inertial automorphisms of an abelian group $A$, that is, automorphisms $γ$ with the property that each subgroup $H$ of $A$ has finite index in the subgroup generated by $H$ and $Hγ$. Clearly, $IAut(A)$ contains the group $FAut(A)$ of finitary automorphisms of $A$, which is known to be locally finite. In a previous paper, we showed that $IAut(A)$ is (locally finite)-by-abelian. In this paper, we show that $IAut(A)$ is also metabelian-by-(locally finite). In particular, $IAut(A)$ has a normal subgroup $Γ$ such that $IAut(A)/Γ$ is locally finite and $…
We generalise the notion of a separating intersection of links (SIL) to give necessary and sufficient criteria on the defining graph $Γ$ of a right-angled Coxeter group $W_Γ$ so that its outer automorphism group is large: that is, it contains a finite index subgroup that admits the free group $F_2$ as a quotient. When $Out(W_Γ)$ is not large, we show it is virtually abelian. We also show that the same dichotomy holds for the outer automorphism groups of graph products of finite abelian groups. As a consequence, these groups have property (T) if and only if they are finite, or equivalently $Γ$ …
We study the automorphisms of a graph product of finitely-generated abelian groups W. More precisely, we study a natural subgroup Aut* W of Aut W, with Aut* W = Aut W whenever vertex groups are finite and in a number of other cases. We prove a number of structure results, including a semi-direct product decomposition of Aut* W in which one of the factors is Inn W. We also give a number of applications, some of which are geometric in nature.
We discuss the possibility of lifting finite subgroups, and in particular finite cyclic subgroups, with respect to the canonical projections between automorphism and outer automorphism groups of free groups, surface groups and their abelianizations.
In this paper, we describe the automorphism group of semidirect product of two groups that fixes the non-normal subgroup of it. We have computed these automorphisms for the non-abelian metacyclic $p$-group and non-abelian $p$-groups $(p\ge 5)$ of order $p^{4}$, where $p$ is a prime.
We give an accessible and modern description of the automorphisms of a finite abelian group $G$. Included is an explicit formula for the cardinality of $Aut(G)$.
We characterize the groups isomorphic to full automorphism groups of ordered abelian groups. The result will follow from classical theorems on ordered groups adding an argument from proofs used to realize rings as endomorphism rings of abelian groups.
The group A_{m} of automophisms of a one-rooted m-ary tree admits a diagonal monomorphism which we denote by x. Let A be an abelian state-closed (or self-similar) subgroup of A_{m}. We prove that the combined diagonal and tree-topological closure A* of A is additively a finitely presented Z_m [[x]]-module where Z_m is the ring of m-adic integers. Moreover, if A* is torsion-free then it is a finitely generated pro-m group. The group A splits over its torsion subgroup. We study in detail the case where A* corresponds to a cyclic Z_m[[x]]-module and when m is a prime number, we show A* to be conj…
We construct free abelian subgroups of the group $U(A_Γ)$ of untwisted outer automorphisms of a right-angled Artin group, thus giving lower bounds on the virtual cohomological dimension. The group $U(A_Γ)$ was previously studied by Charney, Stambaugh and the second author, who constructed a contractible cube complex on which it acts properly and cocompactly, giving an upper bound for the virtual cohomological dimension. The ranks of our free abelian subgroups are equal to the dimensions of the principal cubes in this complex. These are often of maximal dimension, so that the upper and lower bo…
Let $A$ be a set and $f:A\rightarrow A$ a bijective function. Necessary and sufficient conditions on $f$ are determined which makes it possible to endow $A$ with a binary operation $*$ such that $(A,*)$ is a cyclic group and $f\in \mbox{Aut}(A)$. This result is extended to all abelian groups in case $|A|=p^2, \ p$ a prime. Finally, in case $A$ is countably infinite, those $f$ for which it is possible to turn $A$ into a group $(A,*)$ isomorphic to ${\Bbb Z}^n$ for some $n\ge 1$, and with $f\in \mbox{Aut} (A)$, are completely characterised.
We find a set of generators for the automorphism group of a graph product of finitely generated abelian groups entirely from a certain labeled graph. In addition, we find generators for the important subgroup of star-automorphisms defined in [7]. We follow closely the plan of M. Laurence's paper [11].
We compute a twisted first cohomology group of the automorphism group of a free group with coefficients in the abelianization $V$ of the IA-automorphism group of a free group. In particular, we show that it is generated by two crossed homomorphisms constructed with the Magnus representation and the Magnus expansion due to Morita and Kawazumi respectively. As a corollary, we see that the first Johnson homomorphism does not extend to the automorphism group of a free group as a crossed homomorphism for the rank of the free group is greater than 4.
We prove that the automorphism group of an arbitrary non-abelian free group is complete. It generalizes the result by J.Dyer and E.Formanek (1975) stating the completeness of automorphism group of finitely generated free groups. Using the description of involutions in automorphism groups of free groups (J. Dyer, P. Scott, 1975) we obtain a group-theoretic characterization of inner automorphisms determined by primitive elements in the automorphism group of any non-abelian free group F. It follows that the subgroup Inn(F) is characteristic in Aut(F), and hence the latter one is complete.
Let $G$ be a finite non-cyclic $p$-group of order at least $p^3$. If $G$ has an abelian maximal subgroup, or if $G$ has an elementary abelian centre with $C_G(Z(Φ(G))) \ne Φ(G)$, then $|G|$ divides $|\text{Aut}(G)|$.
For a finite abelian group $A$, the Reidemeister number of an endomorphism $φ$ equals the size of $\mathrm{Fix}(φ)$, the set of fixed points of $φ$. Consequently, the Reidemeister spectrum of $A$ is a subset of the set of divisors of $|A|$. We fully determine the Reidemeister spectrum of $|A|$, that is, which divisors of $|A|$ occur as the Reidemeister number of an automorphism. To do so, we discuss and prove a more general result providing upper and lower bounds on the number of fixed points of automorphisms related to a given automorphism $φ$.
We explore the existence of homomorphisms between outer automorphism groups of free groups Out(F_n) \to Out(F_m). We prove that if n > 8 is even and n \neq m \leq 2n, or n is odd and n \neq m \leq 2n - 2, then all such homomorphisms have finite image; in fact they factor through det: Out(F_n) \to Z/2. In contrast, if m = r^n(n - 1) + 1 with r coprime to (n - 1), then there exists an embedding Out(F_n) \to Out(F_m). In order to prove this last statement, we determine when the action of Out(F_n) by homotopy equivalences on a graph of genus n can be lifted to an action on a normal covering with a…
Let $A$ be an infinitely generated free abelian group. We prove that the automorphism group $\aut A$ first-order interprets the full second-order theory of the set $|A|$ with no structure. In particular, this implies that the automorphism groups of two infinitely generated free abelian groups $A_1,A_2$ are elementarily equivalent if and only if the sets $|A_1|,|A_2|$ are second-order equivalent.
Consider unbounded reduced Abelian p-groups (p > 2) A and A'. In this paper, we prove that if the automorphism groups Aut A and Aut A' are elementary equivalent then the groups A and A' are equivalent in the second order logic bounded by the final rank of the basic subgroups of A and A'.
Let $G = H\times A$ be a group, where $H$ is a purely non-abelian subgroup of $G$ and $A$ is a non-trivial abelian factor of $G$. Then, for $n \geq 2$, we show that there exists an isomorphism $ϕ: Aut_{Z(G)}^{γ_{n}(G)}(G) \rightarrow Aut_{Z(H)}^{γ_{n}(H)}(H)$ such that $ϕ(Aut_{c}^{n-1}(G))=Aut_{c}^{n-1}(H)$. Also, for a finite non-abelian $p$-group $G$ satisfying a certain natural hypothesis, we give some necessary and sufficient conditions for $Autcent(G) = Aut_c^{n-1}(G)$. Furthermore, for a finite non-abelian $p$-group $G$ we study the equality of $Autcent(G)$ with $Aut_{Z(G)}^{γ_{n}(G)}(G)…
We show that the outer automorphism groups of graph products of finitely generated abelian groups satisfy the Tits alternative, are residually finite, their so-called Torelli subgroups are finitely generated, and they satisfy a dichotomy between being virtually nilpotent and containing a non-abelian free subgroup that is determined by a graphical condition on the underlying labelled graph. Graph products of finitely generated abelian groups simultaneously generalize right-angled Artin groups (RAAGs) and right-angled Coxter groups (RACGs), providing a common framework for studying these groups.…
An automorphism $α$ of a group $G$ is said to be central if $α$ commutes with every inner automorphism of $G$. We construct a family of non-special finite $p$-groups having abelian automorphism groups. These groups provide counter examples to a conjecture of A. Mahalanobis [Israel J. Math., {\bf 165} (2008), 161 - 187]. We also construct a family of finite $p$-groups having non-abelian automorphism groups and all automorphisms central. This solves a problem of I. Malinowska [Advances in group theory, Aracne Editrice, Rome 2002, 111-127].
We give a classification of maximal elements of the set of finite groups that can be realized as the automorphism groups of polarized abelian threefolds over finite fields.
In this survey article, we try to summarize the known results towards the long-standing non-inner automorphism conjecture, which states that every finite non-abelian $p$-group has a non-inner automorphism of order $p$.
Bestvina, Feighn and Handel proved that every subgroup of the outer automorphism group, $\textrm{Out}(F_n)$, of the free group of rank $n$ is either virtually finitely generated abelian or contains a nonabelian free group. In this note we consider the more general situation of the outer automorphism group $\textrm{Out}(G)$ of a finitely generated free-by-finite group $G$. We show that $\textrm{Out}(G)$ is translation discrete and that every subgroup of $\textrm{Out}(G)$ is either virtually finitely generated abelian or contains a nonabelian free group.
Given a free product $G$, we investigate the existence of faithful free representations of the outer automorphism group $\text{Out}(G)$, or in other words of embeddings of $\text{Out}(G)$ into $\text{Out}\left(F_m\right)$ for some $m$. This is based on a work of Bridson and Vogtmann in which they construct embeddings of $\text{Out}\left(F_n\right)$ into $\text{Out}\left(F_m\right)$ for some values of $n$ and $m$ by interpreting $\text{Out}\left(F_n\right)$ as the group of homotopy equivalences of a graph $X$ of genus $n$, and by lifting homotopy equivalences of $X$ to a characteristic abelian …
In this paper, we study some properties of the outer automorphism group of free Burnside groups of large odd exponent. In particular, we prove that it contains free and free abelian subgroups.
This is one of a series papers which aim towards to solve the problem of determining automorphism groups of Frobenius groups. This one solves the problem in the case where the Frobenius kernels are elementary abelian and Frobenius complements are cyclic.
For each Sophie Germain prime $g \geq 5,$ we construct an absolutely simple polarized abelian variety of dimension $g$ over a finite field, whose automorphism group is a cyclic group of order $4g+2$. We also provide a description on the asymptotic behavior of prime numbers that are related to our construction.
We complete the study of finite and profinite groups admitting an action by an elementary abelian group under which the centralizers of automorphisms consist of Engel elements. In particular, we prove the following theorems. Let $q$ be a prime and $A$ an elementary abelian $q$-group of order at least $q^2$ acting coprimely on a profinite group $G$. Assume that all elements in $C_{G}(a)$ are Engel in $G$ for each $a\in A^{\#}$. Then $G$ is locally nilpotent (Theorem B2). Let $q$ be a prime, $n$ a positive integer and $A$ an elementary abelian group of order $q^3$ acting coprimely on a finite gr…
In this paper we study the existence of at least one non-inner automorphism of order p of a non-abelian finite p-group of coclass 3, where p is a prime integer such that p is different from 3.
We prove that for any prime number $p$, every finite non-abelian $p$-group $G$ of class 2 has a noninner automorphism of order $p$ leaving either the Frattini subgroup $Φ(G)$ or $Ω_1(Z(G))$ elementwise fixed.
We study subgroups and quotients of outer automorphism groups of right-angled Artin groups (RAAGs). We prove that for all RAAGS, the outer automorphism group is residually finite and, for a large class of RAAGs, it satisfies the Tits alternative. We also investigate which of these automorphism groups contain non-abelian solvable subgroups.
Let $G$ be a finite non-abelian $p$-group, where $p$ is a prime. Let $\mathrm{Aut}_c(G)$ and $\mathrm{Aut}_z(G)$ respectively denote the group of all class preserving and central automorphisms of $G$. We give a necessary condition for $G$ such that $\mathrm{Aut}_c(G)=\mathrm{Aut}_z(G)$ and give necessary and sufficient conditions for $G$ with elementary abelian or cyclic center such that $\mathrm{Aut}_c(G)=\mathrm{Aut}_z(G).$ We also characterize all finite $p$-groups $G$ of order $\leq p^7$ such that $\mathrm{Aut}_c(G)=\mathrm{Aut}_z(G)$ and complete the classification of all finite $p$-group…
We complete the description of automorphism groups of all nonsplit extensions of elementary abelian $2$-groups by $PSL_2(q)$, with $q$ odd, for an irreducible induced action. An application of this result to the theory of $π$-submaximal subgroups is given.
We classify the nonsplit extensions of elementary abelian $p$-groups by $PSL_2(q)$, with odd $p$ dividing $q-1$, for an irreducible induced action, calculate the relevant low-dimensional cohomology groups, and describe the automorphism groups of such extensions.
Let $f(x)$ be a non-zero polynomial with integer coefficients. An automorphism $φ$ of a group $G$ is said to satisfy the elementary abelian identity $f(x)$ if the linear transformation induced by $φ$ on every characteristic elementary abelian section $S$ of $G$ is annihilated by $f(x)$. We prove that if a finite (soluble) group $G$ admits a fixed-point-free automorphism $φ$ satisfying an elementary abelian identity $f(x)$, where $f(x)$ is a primitive polynomial, then the Fitting height of $G$ is bounded in terms of $\operatorname{deg}(f(x))$. We also prove that if $f(x)$ is any non-zero polyno…
We study the dilatation of outer automorphisms of right-angled Artin groups. Given a right-angled Artin group defined on a simplicial graph: $A(Γ) = \langle V | E \rangle$ and an automorphism $ϕ\in Out(A(Γ))$ there is a natural measure of how fast the length of a word of $A(Γ)$ grows after $n$ iterations of $ϕ$ as a function of $n$, which we call the dilatation of $w$ under $ϕ$. We define the dilatation of $ϕ$ as the supremum over dilatations of all $w \in A(Γ)$. Assuming that $ϕ$ is a pure and square map, we show that if the dilatation of $ϕ$ is positive, then either there exists a free abeli…
We classify closed abelian subgroups of the automorphism group of any compact classical simple Lie algebra whose centralizer has the same dimension as the dimension of the subgroup, and describe Weyl groups of maximal abelian subgroups.
We describe the autotopism group Atp(G) of any abelian group G as being a semidirect product of its automorphism group Aut(G) and G^2. We then provide the subgroup structure of Atp(G) when G is a finite cyclic group.
