We investigate the proportion of fixed point free permutations (derangements) in finite transitive permutation groups. This article is the first in a series where we prove a conjecture of Shalev that the proportion of such elements is bounded away from zero for a simple finite group. In fact, there are much stronger results. This article focuses on finite Chevalley groups of bounded rank. We also discuss derangements in algebraic groups and in more general primitive groups. These results have applications in questions about probabilistic generation of finite simple groups and maps between varieties over finite fields.
Motivated by questions arising in connection with branched coverings of connected smooth projective curves over finite fields, we study the proportion of fixed point free elements (derangements) in cosets of normal subgroups of primitive permutations groups. Using the Aschbacher-O'Nan-Scott theorem for primitive groups to partition the problem, we provide complete answers for affine groups and groups which contain a regular normal nonabelian subgroup.
Let $G$ be a finite primitive permutation group and let $κ(G)$ be the number of conjugacy classes of derangements in $G$. By a classical theorem of Jordan, $κ(G) \geqslant 1$. In this paper we classify the groups $G$ with $κ(G)=1$, and we use this to obtain new results on the structure of finite groups with an irreducible complex character that vanishes on a unique conjugacy class. We also obtain detailed structural information on the groups with $κ(G)=2$, including a complete classification for almost simple groups.
Let $G$ be a transitive permutation group on a finite set of size at least $2$. By a well known theorem of Fein, Kantor and Schacher, $G$ contains a derangement of prime power order. In this paper, we study the finite primitive permutation groups with the extremal property that the order of every derangement is an $r$-power, for some fixed prime $r$. First we show that these groups are either almost simple or affine, and we determine all the almost simple groups with this property. We also prove that an affine group $G$ has this property if and only if every two-point stabilizer is an $r$-grou…
This is the third in a series of papers in which we prove a conjecture of Boston and Shalev that the proportion of derangements (fixed point free elements) is bounded away from zero for transitive actions of finite simple groups on a set of size greater than one. This paper treats the case of primitive subspace actions. It is also shown that if the dimension and codimension of the subspace go to infinity, then the proportion of derangements goes to one. Similar results are proved for elements in finite classical groups in cosets of the simple group. The results in this paper have applications …
We present explicit upper bounds for the number and size of conjugacy classes in finite Chevalley groups and their variations. These results have been used by many authors to study zeta functions associated to representations of finite simple groups, random walks on Chevalley groups, the final solution to the Ore conjecture about commutators in finite simple groups and other similar problems. In this paper, we solve a strong version of the Boston-Shalev conjecture on derangements in simple groups for most of the families of primitive permutation group representations of finite simple groups (t…
Let $G$ be a transitive permutation group acting on a finite set $Ω$ with $|Ω|\geqslant 2$. An element of $G$ is said to be a derangement if it has no fixed points on $Ω$, and by a theorem of Jordan from 1872, $G$ always contains such an element. In particular by a theorem of Fein, Kantor and Schacher $G$ contains a derangement of prime power order. Nevertheless there exist groups in which there are no derangements of prime order, these groups are called elusive groups. Defining an natural extension of this we say $G$ is almost elusive if it contains a unique conjugacy class of derangements of…
This is the fourth paper in a series. We prove a conjecture made independently by Boston et al and Shalev. The conjecture asserts that there is an absolute positive constant delta such that if G is a finite simple group acting transitively on a set of size n > 1, then the proportion of derangements in G is greater than delta. We show that with possibly finitely many exceptions, one can take delta = .016. Indeed, we prove much stronger results showing that for many actions, the proportion of derangements goes to 1 as n increases and prove similar results for families of permutation representati…
We examine the subgroup $D(G)$ of a transitive permutation group $G$ which is generated by the derangements in $G$. Our main results bound the index of this subgroup: we conjecture that, if $G$ has degree $n$ and is not a Frobenius group, then $|G:D(G)|\leqslant\sqrt{n}-1$; we prove this except when $G$ is a primitive affine group. For affine groups, we translate our conjecture into an equivalent form regarding $|H:R(H)|$, where $H$ is a linear group on a finite vector space and $R(H)$ is the subgroup of $H$ generated by elements having eigenvalue~$1$. If $G$ is a Frobenius group, then $D(G)$ …
Let $G$ be a nontrivial transitive permutation group on a finite set $Ω$. An element of $G$ is said to be a derangement if it has no fixed points on $Ω$. From the orbit counting lemma, it follows that $G$ contains a derangement, and in fact $G$ contains a derangement of prime power order by a theorem of Fein, Kantor and Schacher. However, there are groups with no derangements of prime order; these are the so-called elusive groups and they have been widely studied in recent years. Extending this notion, we say that $G$ is almost elusive if it contains a unique conjugacy class of derangements of…
In recent years there has been significant progress in the study of products of subsets of finite groups and of finite simple groups in particular. In this paper we consider which families of finite simple groups $G$ have the property that for each $ε> 0$ there exists $N > 0$ such that, if $|G| \ge N$ and $S, T$ are normal subsets of $G$ with at least $ε|G|$ elements each, then every non-trivial element of $G$ is the product of an element of $S$ and an element of $T$. We show that this holds in a strong sense for finite simple groups of Lie type of bounded rank, while it does not hold for alte…
The problem of describing the invariance groups of unordered relations, called briefly \emph{relation groups}, goes back to classical work by H. Wielandt. In general, the problem turned out to be hard, and so far it has been settled only for a few special classes of permutation groups. The problem have been solved, in particular, for the class of primitive permutation groups, using the classification of finite simple groups and other deep results of permutation group theory. In this paper we show that, if $G$ is a finite simple primitive permutation group other then the alternating group $A_n$…
Let $G$ be a transitive permutation group of degree $n$ with point stabiliser $H$ and let $r$ be a prime divisor of $n$. We say that $G$ is $r$-elusive if it does not contain a derangement of order $r$. The problem of determining the $r$-elusive primitive groups can be reduced to the almost simple case, and the purpose of this paper is to complete the study of $r$-elusivity for almost simple classical groups. Building on our earlier work for geometric actions of classical groups, in this paper we handle the remaining non-geometric actions where $H$ is almost simple and irreducible. This requir…
Let $G$ be a collineation group of a thick finite generalised hexagon or generalised octagon $Γ$. If $G$ acts primitively on the points of $Γ$, then a recent result of Bamberg et al. shows that $G$ must be an almost simple group of Lie type. We show that, furthermore, the minimal normal subgroup $S$ of $G$ cannot be a Suzuki group or a Ree group of type $^2\text{G}_2$, and that if $S$ is a Ree group of type $^2\text{F}_4$, then $Γ$ is (up to point--line duality) the classical Ree--Tits generalised octagon.
A generalised quadrangle is a point-line incidence geometry G such that: (i) any two points lie on at most one line, and (ii) given a line L and a point p not incident with L, there is a unique point on L collinear with p. They are a specific case of the generalised polygons introduced by Tits, and these structures and their automorphism groups are of some importance in finite geometry. An integral part of understanding the automorphism groups of finite generalised quadrangles is knowing which groups can act primitively on their points, and in particular, which almost simple groups arise as au…
This paper begins the classification of all edge-primitive 3-arc-transitive graphs by classifying all such graphs where the automorphism group is an almost simple group with socle an alternating or sporadic group, and all such graphs where the automorphism group is an almost simple classical group with a vertex-stabiliser acting faithfully on the set of neighbours.
A fascinating problem on digraphs is the existence problem of the finiteupper bound on s for all vertex-primitive s-arc-transitive digraphs except directed cycles (which is known to be reduced to the almost simple groups case). In this paper,we prove that s 2 for all G-vertex-primitive s-arc-transitive digraphs with G an (insoluble) alternating or symmetric group, which makes an important progress towards a solution of the problem. The proofs involves some methods that may be used to investigate other almost simple groups cases.
We classify finite primitive permutation groups having a suborbit of length 5. As a corollary, we obtain a classification of finite vertex-primitive graphs of valency 5. In the process, we also classify finite almost simple groups that have a maximal subgroup isomorphic to $\mathrm{Alt}(5)$ or $\mathrm{Sym}(5)$.
Let $G$ be a finite permutation group on $Ω$. An ordered sequence $(ω_1,\ldots,ω_\ell)$ of elements of $Ω$ is an irredundant base for $G$ if the pointwise stabilizer is trivial and no point is fixed by the stabilizer of its predecessors. If all irredundant bases of $G$ have the same cardinality, $G$ is said to be an IBIS group. Lucchini, Morigi and Moscatiello have proved a theorem reducing the problem of classifying finite primitive IBIS groups $G$ to the case that the socle of $G$ is either abelian or non-abelian simple. In this paper, we classify the finite primitive IBIS groups having socl…
Suppose that an automorphism group $G$ acts flag-transitively on a finite generalized hexagon or octagon $\cS$, and suppose that the action on both the point and line set is primitive. We show that $G$ is an almost simple group of Lie type, that is, the socle of $G$ is a simple Chevalley group.
The classification of flag-transitive generalised quadrangles is a long-standing open problem at the interface of finite geometry and permutation group theory. Given that all known flag-transitive generalised quadrangles are also point-primitive (up to point-line duality), it is likewise natural to seek a classification of the point-primitive examples. Working towards this aim, we are led to investigate generalised quadrangles that admit a collineation group $G$ preserving a Cartesian product decomposition of the set of points. It is shown that, under a generic assumption on $G$, the number of…
Many famous graphs are edge-primitive, for example, the Heawood graph, the Tutte--Coxeter graph and the Higman--Sims graph. In this paper we systematically analyse edge-primitive and edge-quasiprimitive graphs via the O'Nan--Scott Theorem to determine the possible edge and vertex actions of such graphs. Many interesting examples are given and we also determine all $G$-edge-primitive graphs for $G$ an almost simple group with socle $PSL(2,q)$.
In 2008, Schneider and Van Maldeghem proved that if a group acts flag-transitively, point-primitively, and line-primitively on a generalised hexagon or generalised octagon, then it is an almost simple group of Lie type. We show that point-primitivity is sufficient for the same conclusion, regardless of the action on lines or flags. This result narrows the search for generalised hexagons or octagons with point- or line-primitive collineation groups beyond the classical examples, namely the two generalised hexagons and one generalised octagon admitting the Lie type groups $\mathsf{G}_2(q)$, $\,^…
Let $G$ be a group of collineations of a finite thick generalised quadrangle $Γ$. Suppose that $G$ acts primitively on the point set $\mathcal{P}$ of $Γ$, and transitively on the lines of $Γ$. We show that the primitive action of $G$ on $\mathcal{P}$ cannot be of holomorph simple or holomorph compound type. In joint work with Glasby, we have previously classified the examples $Γ$ for which the action of $G$ on $\mathcal{P}$ is of affine type. The problem of classifying generalised quadrangles with a point-primitive, line-transitive collineation group is therefore reduced to the case where ther…
We classify the regular maps $\mathcal M$ which have automorphism groups $G$ acting faithfully and primitively on their vertices. As a permutation group $G$ must be of almost simple or affine type, with dihedral point stabilisers. We show that all such almost simple groups, namely all but a few groups ${\rm PSL}_2(q)$, ${\rm PGL}_2(q)$ and ${\rm Sz}(q)$, arise from regular maps, which are always non-orientable. In the affine case, the maps $\mathcal M$ occur in orientable and non-orientable Petrie dual pairs. We give the number of maps associated with each group, together with their genus and …
We discuss recent progress on the problem of classifying point-primitive generalised polygons. In the case of generalised hexagons and generalised octagons, this has reduced the problem to primitive actions of almost simple groups of Lie type. To illustrate how the natural geometry of these groups may be used in this study, we show that if $\mathcal{S}$ is a finite thick generalised hexagon or octagon with $G \leqslant{\rm Aut}(\mathcal{S})$ acting point-primitively and the socle of $G$ isomorphic to ${\rm PSL}_n(q)$ where $n \geqslant 2$, then the stabiliser of a point acts irreducibly on the…
An irredundant base $B$ for a permutation group $G\leq \mathrm{Sym}(Ω)$ is an ordered subset of $Ω$ with trivial stabiliser such that no base point is fixed by the stabiliser of its predecessors. Groups whose irredundant bases all have the same size are termed Irredundant Bases of Invariant Size (IBIS) groups, and were introduced by Cameron and Fon-Der-Flaass. In this paper, we contribute to the classification of primitive IBIS groups by classifying those that are almost simple with sporadic socle.
If $G$ is a finite primitive complex reflection group, all reflection subgroups of $G$ and their inclusions are determined up to conjugacy. As a consequence, it is shown that if the rank of $G$ is $n$ and if $G$ can be generated by $n$ reflections, then for every set $R$ of $n$ reflections which generate $G$, every subset of $R$ generates a parabolic subgroup of $G$.
Let $G$ be a finite permutation group on $Ω$. An ordered sequence of elements of $Ω$, $(ω_1,\dots, ω_t)$, is an irredundant base for $G$ if the pointwise stabilizer $G_{(ω_1,\dots, ω_t)}$ is trivial and no point is fixed by the stabilizer of its predecessors. If all irredundant bases of $G$ have the same size we say that $G$ is an IBIS group. In this paper we show that if a primitive permutation group is IBIS, then it must be almost simple, of affine-type, or of diagonal type. Moreover we prove that a diagonal-type primitive permutation groups is IBIS if and only if it is isomorphic to $PSL(2,…
We conjecture that if $G$ is a finite primitive group and if $g$ is an element of $G$, then either the element $g$ has a cycle of length equal to its order, or for some $r,m$ and $k$, the group $G\leq S_m\wr S_r$, preserving a product structure of $r$ direct copies of the natural action of $S_m$ or $A_m$ on $k$-sets. In this paper we reduce this conjecture to the case that $G$ is an almost simple group with socle a classical group.
We present all Belyi maps P^1(C) -> P^1(C) having almost simple primitive monodromy groups (not isomorphic to A_n or S_n) containing rigid and rational generating triples of degree between 50 and 250. This also leads to new polynomials having almost simple Galois groups over Q(t).
Let $G$ be a finite primitive permutation group on a set $Ω$ with nontrivial point stabilizer $G_α$. We say that $G$ is extremely primitive if $G_α$ acts primitively on each of its orbits in $Ω\setminus \{α\}$. In earlier work, Mann, Praeger and Seress have proved that every extremely primitive group is either almost simple or of affine type and they have classified the affine groups up to the possibility of at most finitely many exceptions. More recently, the almost simple extremely primitive groups have been completely determined. If one assumes Wall's conjecture on the number of maximal sub…
We determine upper bounds for the maximum order of an element of a finite almost simple group with socle T in terms of the minimum index m(T) of a maximal subgroup of T: for T not an alternating group we prove that, with finitely many exceptions, the maximum element order is at most m(T). Moreover, apart from an explicit list of groups, the bound can be reduced to m(T)/4. These results are applied to determine all primitive permutation groups on a set of size n that contain permutations of order greater than or equal to n/4.
Let $G$ be a finite non-regular primitive permutation group on a set $Ω$ with point stabiliser $G_α$. Then $G$ is said to be extremely primitive if $G_α$ acts primitively on each of its orbits in $Ω\setminus \{α\}$, which is a notion dating back to work of Manning in the 1920s. By a theorem of Mann, Praeger and Seress, it is known that every extremely primitive group is either almost simple or affine, and all the almost simple examples have subsequently been determined. Similarly, Mann et al. have classified all of the affine extremely primitive groups up to a finite, but undetermined, collect…
Automorphism groups of Cayley graphs on almost simple groups with normal connection sets
Institute for Mathematical Sciences, Renmin University of China（中国人民大学数学科学研究所）；Laboratory of Mathematics and Complex Systems (Ministry of Education), School of Mathematical Sciences, Beijing Normal University（北京师范大学数学科学学院数学与复杂系统教育部重点实验室）；School of Mathematics and Statistics The University of Melbourne（墨尔本大学数学与统计学院）
Let $G$ be a finite primitive permutation group on a set $Ω$ with nontrivial point stabilizer $G_α$. We say that $G$ is extremely primitive if $G_α$ acts primitively on each of its orbits in $Ω\setminus \{α\}$. These groups arise naturally in several different contexts and their study can be traced back to work of Manning in the 1920s. In this paper, we determine the almost simple extremely primitive groups with socle an exceptional group of Lie type. By combining this result with earlier work of Burness, Praeger and Seress, this completes the classification of the almost simple extremely prim…
Let $G \leqslant {\rm Sym}(Ω)$ be a finite almost simple primitive permutation group, with socle $G_0$ and point stabilizer $H$. A subset of $Ω$ is a base for $G$ if its pointwise stabilizer is trivial; the base size of $G$, denoted $b(G)$, is the minimal size of a base. We say that $G$ is standard if $G_0 = A_n$ and $Ω$ is an orbit of subsets or partitions of $\{1, \ldots, n\}$, or if $G_0$ is a classical group and $Ω$ is an orbit of subspaces (or pairs of subspaces) of the natural module for $G_0$. The base size of a standard group can be arbitrarily large, in general, whereas the situation …
Our main goal is to study the freeness of Schützenberger groups defined by primitive substitutions. Our findings include a simple freeness test for these groups, which is applied to exhibit a primitive invertible substitution with corresponding non-free Schützenberger group. This constitutes a counterexample to a result of Almeida dating back to 2005. We also give some early results concerning relative freeness of Schützenberger groups, a question which remains largely unexplored.
The purpose of this note is to extend the classical Aschbacher--O'Nan--Scott theorem for finite groups to the class of countable linear groups. This relies on the analysis of primitive actions carried out in a previous paper. Unlike the situation for finite groups, we show here that the number of primitive actions depends on the type: linear groups of almost simple type admit infinitely (and in fact unaccountably) many primitive actions, while affine and diagonal groups admit only one. The abundance of primitive permutation representations is particularly interesting for rigid groups such as s…
Every synchronising permutation group is primitive and of one of three types: affine, almost simple, or diagonal. We exhibit the first known example of a synchronising diagonal type group. More precisely, we show that $\mathrm{PSL}(2,q)\times \mathrm{PSL}(2,q)$ acting in its diagonal action on $\mathrm{PSL}(2,q)$ is separating, and hence synchronising, for $q=13$ and $q=17$. Furthermore, we show that such groups are non-spreading for all prime powers $q$.
