We prove that the symmetric group $S_n$ has a unique minimal cover $\mathcal{M}$ by maximal nilpotent subgroups, and we obtain an explicit and easily computed formula for the order of $\mathcal{M}$. In addition, we prove that the order of $\mathcal{M}$ is equal to the order of a maximal non-nilpotent subset of $S_n$. This cover $\mathcal{M}$ has attractive properties; for instance, it is a normal cover, and the number of conjugacy classes of subgroups in the cover is equal to the number of partitions of $n$ into distinct positive integers. We show that these results contrast with those for the alternating group $A_n$. In particular, we prove that, for all but finitely many values of $n$, no minimal cover of $A_n$ by maximal nilpotent subgroups is a normal cover and the order of a minimal cover of $A_n$ by maximal nilpotent subgroups is strictly greater than the order of a maximal non-nilpotent subset of $A_n$.
Let G be a profinite group. The following results are proved. The commutator subgroup G' is finite if and only if G is covered by countably many abelian subgroups. The group G is finite-by-nilpotent if and only if G is covered by countably many nilpotent subgroups. The main result is that the commutator subgroup G' is finite-by-nilpotent if and only if the set of commutators in G is covered by countably many nilpotent subgroups.
A covering of a group is a finite set of proper subgroups whose union is the whole group. A covering is minimal if there is no covering of smaller cardinality, and it is nilpotent if all its members are nilpotent subgroups. We complete a proof that every group that has a nilpotent minimal covering is solvable, starting from the previously known result that a minimal counterexample is an almost simple finite group.
The first author, in 2001, presented a structure for the Baer-invariant of a nilpotent product of cyclic groups with respect to the variety of nilpotent groups. In this paper, using the above structure, we prove the existence of an ${\cal N}_c$-covering group for a nilpotent product of a family of cyclic groups. We also present a structure for the ${\cal N}_c$-covering group.
Let $G$ be a finite group, and $c$ an element of $\mathbb{Z}\cup \{\infty\}$. A subgroup $H$ of $G$ is said to be {\it $c$-nilpotent} if it is nilpotent, and has nilpotency class at most $c$. A subset $X$ of $G$ is said to be {\it non-$c$-nilpotent} if it contains no two elements $x$ and $y$ such that the subgroup $< x,y>$ is $c$-nilpotent. In this paper we study the quantity $ω_c(G)$, defined to be the size of the largest non-$c$-nilpotent subset of $L$. In the case that $L$ is a finite group of Lie type, we identify covers of $L$ by $c$-nilpotent subgroups, and we use these covers to constru…
In this paper I explore the relationship between regular functions associated to local systems on nilpotent orbits and unipotent representations in the complex groups.
Let $Σ$ be a surface whose interior admits a hyperbolic structure of finite volume. In this paper, we show that any infinite order mapping class acts with infinite order on the homology of some universal $k$--step nilpotent cover of $Σ$. We show that a Torelli mapping class either acts with infinite order on the homology of a finite abelian cover, or the suspension of the mapping class is a 3--manifold whose fundamental group has positive homology gradient. In the latter case, it follows that the suspended 3--manifold has a large fundamental group. It follows that every element of the Magnus k…
The normal covering number $γ(G)$ of a finite, non-cyclic group $G$ is the minimum number of proper subgroups such that each element of $G$ lies in some conjugate of one of these subgroups. We find lower bounds linear in $n$ for $γ(S_n)$, when $n$ is even, and for $γ(A_n)$, when $n$ is odd.
The main purpose of this paper is to prove that the extensions of a nilpotent block algebra and its Glauberman correspondent block algebra are Morita equivalent under an additional group-theoretic condition. In particular, Harris and Linckelman's theorem and Koshitani and Michler's theorem are covered. The ingredient to carry out our purpose is the two main results in Külshammer and Puig's work "Extensions of nilpotent blocks"; we actually revisited them, giving completely new proofs of both and slightly improving the second one.
The normal covering number $γ(G)$ of a finite, non-cyclic group $G$ is the least number of proper subgroups such that each element of $G$ lies in some conjugate of one of these subgroups. We prove that there is a positive constant $c$ such that, for $G$ a symmetric group $\Sym(n)$ or an alternating group $\Alt(n)$, $γ(G)\geq cn$. This improves results of the first two authors who had earlier proved that $aφ(n)\leqγ(G)\leq 2n/3,$ for some positive constant $a$, where $φ$ is the Euler totient function. Bounds are also obtained for the maximum size $κ(G)$ of a set $X$ of conjugacy classes of $G=\…
For $G$ a finite group, let $d_2(G)$ denote the proportion of triples $(x, y, z) \in G^3$ such that $[x, y, z] = 1$. We determine the structure of finite groups $G$ such that $d_2(G)$ is bounded away from zero: if $d_2(G) \geq ε> 0$, $G$ has a class-4 nilpotent normal subgroup $H$ such that $[G : H] $ and $|γ_4(H)|$ are both bounded in terms of $ε$. We also show that if $G$ is an infinite group whose commutators have boundedly many conjugates, or indeed if $G$ satisfies a certain more general commutator covering condition, then $G$ is finite-by-class-3-nilpotent-by-finite.
Let $G=A_n$, a finite alternating group. We study the commuting graph of $G$ and establish, for all possible values of $n$ barring $13, 14, 17$ and $19$, whether or not the independence number is equal to the clique-covering number.
In this paper we investigate the minimum number of maximal subgroups H_i for i=1 ...k of the symmetric group S_n (or the alternating group A_n) such that each element in the group S_n (respectively A_n) lies in some conjugate of one of the H_i. We prove that this number lies between a.phi(n) and bn for certain constants a, b, where phi(n) is the Euler phi-function, and we show that the number depends on the arithmetical complexity of n. Moreover in the case where n is divisible by at most two primes, we obtain an upper bound of 2+phi(n)/2, and we determine the exact value for S_n when n is odd…
Let ${\cal N}_c$ be the variety of nilpotent groups of class at most $c\ \ (c\geq 2)$ and $G=Z_r\oplus Z_s $ be the direct sum of two finite cyclic groups. It is shown that if the greatest common divisor of $r$ and $s$ is not one, then $G$ does not have any ${\cal N}_c$-covering group for every $c\geq 2$. This result gives an idea that Lemma 2 of J.Wiegold [6] and Haebich's Theorem [1], a vast generalization of the Wiegold's Theorem, can {\it not} be generalized to the variety of nilpotent groups of class at most $c\geq 2$.
We investigate the endotrivial modules for the Schur covers of the symmetric and alternating groups and determine the structure of their group of endotrivial modules in all characteristics. We provide a full description of this group by generators and relations in all cases.
Using combinatorics and character theory, we determine the imprimitive faithful complex characters, i.e., the irreducible faithful complex characters which are induced from proper subgroups, of the Schur covers of the symmetric and alternating groups. Furthermore, for every imprimitive character we establish all its minimal block stabilizers. As a corollary, we also determine the monomial faithful characters of the Schur covers.
Let $n>0$ be an integer and $\mathcal{X}$ be a class of groups. We say that a group $G$ satisfies the condition $(\mathcal{X},n)$ whenever in every subset with $n+1$ elements of $G$ there exist distinct elements $x,y$ such that $<x,y>$ is in $\mathcal{X}$. Let $\mathcal{N}$ and $ \mathcal{A}$ be the classes of nilpotent groups and abelian groups, respectively. Here we prove that: (1) If $G$ is a finite semi-simple group satisfying the condition $(\mathcal{N},n)$, then $|G|<c^{2[\log_{21}n]n^2} [\log_{21}n]!$, for some constant $c$. (2) A finite insoluble group $G$ satisfies the condition $(\ma…
We prove that a K-approximate subgroup of an arbitrary torsion-free nilpotent group can be covered by a bounded number of cosets of a nilpotent subgroup of bounded rank, where the bounds are explicit and depend only on K. The result can be seen as a nilpotent analogue to Freiman's dimension lemma.
In this paper, following the methods of http://arxiv.org/abs/1305.7449v2, we show that the double covering groups of the symmetric and alternating groups have p-basic sets for any odd prime p.
The main theorem in this article shows that a group of odd order which admits the alternating group of degree 5 with an element of order 5 acting fixed point freely is nilpotent of class at most two. For all odd primes r, other than 5, we give a class two r-group which admits the alternating group of degree 5 in such a way. This theorem corrects an earlier result which asserts that such class two groups do not exist. The result allows us to state a theorem giving precise information about groups in which the centralizer of every element of order 5 has centralizer a 5-group.
Let $γ(S_n)$ be the minimum number of proper subgroups $H_i$ of the symmetric group $S_n$ such that each element in $S_n$ lies in some conjugate of one of the $H_i.$ In this paper we conjecture that $$γ(S_n)=\frac{n}{2}\left(1-\frac{1}{p_1}\right) \left(1-\frac{1}{p_2}\right)+2,$$ where $p_1,p_2$ are the two smallest primes in the factorization of $n$ and $n$ is neither a prime power nor a product of two primes. Support for the conjecture is given by a previous result for $n=p_1^{α_1}p_2^{α_2},$ with $(α_1,α_2)\neq (1,1)$. We give further evidence by confirming the conjecture for integers of t…
Given a prime, alternating link diagram, we build a special cover of the link complement whose degree is bounded by a factorial function of the crossing number. It follows that a subgroup of the link group of that index embeds into right-angled Artin and Coxeter groups. Corollaries of this result include a quantification of residual finiteness, control of the growth of Betti numbers in covers, and an explicit bound on the rank of a Z-module on which the link group acts faithfully.
We study the higher Frobenius-Schur indicators of the representations of the Drinfel'd double of a finite group G, in particular the question as to when all the indicators are integers. This turns out to be an interesting group-theoretic question. We show that many groups have this property, such as alternating and symmetric groups, PSL_2(q), M_{11}, M_{12} and regular nilpotent groups. However we show there is an irregular nilpotent group of order 5^6 with non-integer indicators.
I. Schur studied double covers $\widetilde{\Sym}^{\pm}_n$ and $\widetilde{\Alt}_n$ of symmetric groups $\Sym_n$ and alternating groups $\Alt_n$, respectively. Representations of these groups are closely related to projective representations of $\Sym_n$ and $\Alt_n$; there is also a close relationship between these groups and spinor groups. We study the essential dimension $\ed(\widetilde{\Sym}^{\pm}_n)$ and $\ed(\widetilde{\Alt}_n)$. We show that over a base field of characteristic $\neq 2$, $\ed(\widetilde{\Sym}^{\pm}_n)$ and $\ed(\widetilde{\Alt}_n)$ grow exponentially with $n$, similar to $…
We prove that the double covers of the alternating and symmetric groups are determined by their complex group algebras. To be more precise, let $n\geq 5$ be an integer, $G$ a finite group, and let $\AAA$ and $\SSS^\pm$ denote the double covers of $\Al_n$ and $\Sy_n$, respectively. We prove that $\CC G\cong \CC \AAA$ if and only if $G\cong \AAA$, and $\CC G\cong \CC \SSS^+\cong\CC\SSS^-$ if and only if $G\cong \SSS^+$ or $\SSS^-$. This in particular completes the proof of a conjecture proposed by the second and fourth authors that every finite quasi-simple group is determined uniquely up to iso…
It is known that the monodromy group of each cover of a general curve of genus g>3 equals either the symmetric or the alternating group. The classical Catalan numbers count the minimal degree covers (with symmetric monodromy) of a general curve of even genus. We solve the analogous problem for the alternating group and we determine the number of alternating covers of minimal degree 2g+1 of a general curve of genus g.
We prove that the universal covering of an alternating group Alt(n) which is Hurwitz is still Hurwitz, with 31 exceptions, 30 of which are detectable by the genus formula.
So far, it has been proven that if $G$ is an abelian group , then the diameter of $G^n$ with respect to any generating set is $O(n)$; and if $G$ is nilpotent, symmetric or dihedral, then there exists a generating set of minimum size, for which the diameter of $G^n$ is $O(n)$ \cite{Karimi:2017}. In \cite{Dona:2022} it has been proven that if $G$ is a non-abelian simple group, then the diameter of $G^n$ with respect to any generating set is $O(n^3)$. In this paper we estimate the diameter of direct power of alternating groups $A_n$ for $n \geq 4$, i.e. a class of non-abelian simple groups. We sh…
The group of alternating colored permutations is the natural analogue of the classical alternating group, inside the wreath product $\mathbb{Z}_r \wr S_n$. We present a 'Coxeter-like' presentation for this group and compute the length function with respect to that presentation. Then, we present this group as a covering of $\mathbb{Z}_{\frac{r}{2}} \wr S_n$ and use this point of view to give another expression for the length function. We also use this covering to lift several known parameters of $\mathbb{Z}_{\frac{r}{2}} \wr S_n$ to the group of alternating colored permutations.
Let $w$ be a group-word. Suppose that the set of all $w$-values in a profinite group $G$ is contained in a union of countably many subgroups. It is natural to ask in what way the structure of the verbal subgroup $w(G)$ depends on the properties of the covering subgroups. The present article is a survey of recent results related to that question. In particular we survey results on finite and countable coverings of word-values (mostly commutators) by procyclic, abelian, nilpotent, and soluble subgroups, as well as subgroups with finiteness conditions. The last section of the paper is devoted to …
On Nilpotent and Hypocentral Quandle Homomorphisms
Osaka Central Advanced Mathematical Institute, Osaka Metropolitan University（大阪中央高等数学研究所，大阪公立大学）；Department of Mathematics, School of Science and Engineering, Waseda University（早稻田大学理工学术院数学系）
The power graph of a finite group $G$ is a simple undirected graph with vertex set $G$ and two vertices are adjacent if one is a power of the other. The enhanced power graph of a finite group $G$ is a simple undirected graph whose vertex set is the group $G$ and two vertices $a$ and $b$ are adjacent if there exists $c \in G$ such that both $a$ and $b$ are powers of $c$. In this paper, we investigate the difference graph $\mathcal{D}(G)$ of a finite group $G$, which is the difference of the enhanced power graph and the power graph of $G$ with all isolated vertices removed. We study the differen…
Minimal Polynomials in Spin Representations of Symmetric and Alternating Groups
The Institute of Mathematical Sciences, Chennai, Homi Bhabha National Institute, Mumbai（马德拉斯数学科学研究所，孟买霍米·巴巴国立大学）；Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore（班加罗尔印度理工学院）；Sobolev Institute of Mathematics, Novosibirsk, Russia（俄罗斯新西伯利亚索博列夫数学研究所）
Let $G$ be a discrete Coxeter group, $G^+$ its alternating subgroup and $\tilde{G}^+$ the spinor cover of $G^+$. A presentation of the groups $G^+$ and $\tilde{G}^+$ is proved for an arbitrary Coxeter system $(G,S)$; the generators are related to edges of the Coxeter graph. Results of the Coxeter--Todd algorithm - with this presentation - for the chains of alternating groups of types A, B and D are given.
Given a finite group $G$ and a faithful irreducible $FG$-module $V$ where $F$ has prime order, does $G$ have a regular orbit on $V$? This problem is equivalent to determining which primitive permutation groups of affine type have a base of size 2. In this paper, we classify the pairs $(G,V)$ for which $G$ has a regular orbit on $V$ where $G$ is a covering group of a symmetric or alternating group and $V$ is a faithful irreducible $FG$-module such that the order of $F$ is prime and divides the order of $G$.
The covering number of a nontrivial finite group $G$, denoted $σ(G)$, is the smallest number of proper subgroups of $G$ whose set-theoretic union equals $G$. In this article, we focus on a dual problem to that of covering numbers of groups, which involves maximal subgroups of finite groups. For a nontrivial finite group $G$, we define the intersection number of $G$, denoted $ι(G)$, to be the minimum number of maximal subgroups whose intersection equals the Frattini subgroup of $G$. We elucidate some basic properties of this invariant, and give an exact formula for $ι(G)$ when $G$ is a nontrivi…
Let $X$ be the surface $\T\times\T$ where $\T$ is the complex torus. This paper is the third in a series, studying the fundamental group of the Galois cover of $X$ \wrt a generic projection onto $\C¶^2$. Van Kampen Theorem gives a presentation of the fundamental group of the complement of the branch curve, with 54 generators and more than 2000 relations. Here we introduce a certain natural quotient (obtained by identifying pairs of generators), prove it is a quotient of a Coxeter group related to the degeneration of $X$, and show that this quotient is virtually nilpotent.
Examples suggest that there is a correspondence between L-spaces and 3-manifolds whose fundamental groups cannot be left-ordered. In this paper we establish the equivalence of these conditions for several large classes of such manifolds. In particular, we prove that they are equivalent for any closed, connected, orientable, geometric 3-manifold that is non-hyperbolic, a family which includes all closed, connected, orientable Seifert fibred spaces. We also show that they are equivalent for the 2-fold branched covers of non-split alternating links. To do this we prove that the fundamental group …
We show that the fundamental group of the double branched cover of an infinite family of homologically thin, non-quasi-alternating knots is not left-orderable, giving further support for a conjecture of Boyer, Gordon, and Watson that an irreducible rational homology 3-sphere is an L-space if and only if its fundamental group is not left-orderable.
