We prove that every noncyclic subgroup of a free $m$-generator Burnside group $B(m,n)$ of odd exponent $n \gg 1$ contains a subgroup $H$ isomorphic to a free Burnside group $B(\infty,n)$ of exponent $n$ and countably infinite rank such that for every normal subgroup $K$ of $H$ the normal closure $<K >^{B(m,n)}$ of $K$ in $B(m,n)$ meets $H$ in $K$. This implies that every noncyclic subgroup of $B(m,n)$ is SQ-universal in the class of groups of exponent $n$.
In this paper, using the notions graphs, core graphs, immersions and covering maps of graphs, introduced by Stallings in 1983, we prove the Burnside condition for the intersection of subgroups of free groups with Burnside condition.
For all sufficiently large odd integers $n$, the following version of Higman's embedding theorem is proved in the variety ${\cal B}_n$ of all groups satisfying the identity $x^n=1$. A finitely generated group $G$ from ${\cal B}_n$ has a presentation $G=\langle A\mid R\rangle$ with a finite set of generators $A$ and a recursively enumerable set $R$ of defining relations if and only if it is a subgroup of a group $H$ finitely presented in the variety ${\cal B}_n$. It follows that there is a 'universal' $2$-generated finitely presented in ${\cal B}_n$ group containing isomorphic copies of all fin…
We develop yet another technique to present the free Burnside group $B(m,n)$ of odd exponent $n$ with $m\ge2$ generators as a group satisfying a certain iterated small cancellation condition. Using the approach, we provide a reasonably accessible proof that $B(m,n)$ is infinite with a moderate bound $n > 2000$ on the odd exponent $n$.
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.
We construct an embedding of a free Burnside group $B(m,n)$ of odd $n > 2^{48}$ and rank $m >1$ in a finitely presented group with some special properties. The main application of this embedding is an easy construction of finitely presented non-amenable groups without noncyclic free subgroups (which provides a finitely presented counterexample to the von Neumann problem on amenable groups). As another application, we construct weakly finitely presented groups of odd exponent $n \gg 1$ which are not locally finite.
We prove that an outer automorphism of the free group is exponentially growing if and only if it induces an outer automorphism of infinite order of free Burnside groups with sufficiently large odd exponent.
We have proved that the group of all inner automorphisms of the free Burnside group $B(m,n)$ is the unique normal subgroup in $Aut(B(m,n))$ among all its subgroups, which are isomorphic to free Burnside group $B(s,n)$ of some rank $s$ for all odd $n\ge1003$ and $m>1$. It follows that the group of automorphisms $Aut(B(m,n))$ of the free Burnside group $B(m,n)$ is complete for odd $n\ge1003$, that is it has a trivial center and any automorphism of $Aut(B(m,n))$ is inner. Thus, for groups $B(m,n)$ is solved the automorphism tower problem and is showed that it is as short as the automorphism tower…
A group K is said to be a B-group if every permutation group containing K as a regular subgroup is either imprimitive or 2-transitive. In the second edition of his influential textbook on finite groups, Burnside published a proof that cyclic groups of composite prime-power degree are B-groups. Ten years later in 1921 he published a proof that every abelian group of composite degree is a B-group. Both proofs are character-theoretic and both have serious flaws. Indeed, the second result is false. In this note we explain these flaws and prove that every cyclic group of composite order is a B-grou…
We show that free Burnside groups of sufficiently large odd exponent are non--amenable in a certain strong sense, more precisely, their left regular representations are isolated from the trivial representation uniformly on finite generating sets. This result is applied to the solution of a strong version of the von Neumann -- Day problem concerning amenability of groups without non--abelian free subgroups. As another consequence, we obtain that the above--mentioned groups are of uniform exponential growth.
We prove that if the order of a splitting automorphism of free Burnside group~$B(m,n)$ of odd period~$n\ge1003$ is a prime power, then the automorphism is inner. Thus, we give an affirmative answer to the question on the coincidence of splitting and inner automorphisms of free Burnside groups $B(m,n)$ for automorphisms of orders~$p^k$ ($p$ is a prime number). This question was posed in the Kourovka Notebook in 1990 (see 11th ed., Question 11.36.~b).
We show that there exists a positive number $M_0$ such that for any odd $M\geq M_0$ a random group of exponent $M$ with overwhelming probability is infinite in the few relator model and in the density $d$ model for small $d$.
In this article we give a sufficient and necessary condition to determine wether or not an element of the free group induces a non-trivial element of the free Burnside group of sufficiently large odd exponent. This criterion can be stated without any knowledge about Burnside groups, in particular about the proof of its infiniteness. Therefore it provides a useful tool that we will use later to study outer automorphisms of Burnside groups. We also state an analogue result for periodic quotients of torsion-free hyperbolic groups.
The famous Burnside-Schur theorem states that every primitive finite permutation group containing a regular cyclic subgroup is either 2-transitive or isomorphic to a subgroup of a 1-dimensional affine group of prime degree. It is known that this theorem can be expressed as a statement on Schur rings over a finite cyclic group. Generalizing the latters we introduce Schur rings over a finite commutative ring and prove an analog of this statement for them. Besides, the finite local commutative rings are characterized in the permutation group terms.
We construct the first examples of finitely presented groups with cubic Dehn function containing a finitely generated infinite torsion subgroup. Moreover, we show that any infinite free Burnside group with sufficiently large odd exponent can be embedded as a subgroup of a finitely presented group with cubic Dehn function.
In this note, we give a new formula for the number of cyclic subgroups of a finite abelian group. This is based on applying the Burnside's lemma to a certain group action. Also, it generalizes the well-known Menon's identity.
For a saturated fusion system $\mathcal F$ on a $p$-group $S$, we study the Burnside ring of the fusion system $B(\mathcal F)$, as defined by Matthew Gelvin and Sune Reeh, which is a subring of the Burnside ring $B(S)$. We give criteria for an element of $B(S)$ to be in $B(\mathcal F)$ determined by the $\mathcal F$-automorphism groups of essential subgroups of $S$. When $\mathcal F$ is the fusion system induced by a finite group $G$ with $S$ as a Sylow $p$-group, we show that the restriction of $B(G)$ to $B(S)$ has image equal to $B(\mathcal F)$. We also show that for $p=2,$ we can gain infor…
All groups have 2 generators. For every prime power q, the Generalized Burnside Theorem (Theorem GB) produces an infinite number of solvable groups, Some, such as groups of a prime power exponent, have only elements of finite order and are therefore finite groups. Others have elements of infinite order and are thus infinite groups. All these groups, even when infinite, are closely related to groups of exponent q. They have at least one generator of order q, and their commutator subgroup has exponent q.
We prove surjectivity of certain word maps on finite non-abelian simple groups. More precisely, we prove the following: if N is a product of two prime powers, then the word map sending (x,y) to the product of the Nth powers of x and y is surjective on every finite non-abelian simple group; If is an odd integer, then the word map sending the triple (x,y,z) to the product of the Nth powers is surjective on every finite quasisimple group. These generalize classical theorems of Burnside and Feit-Thompson. We also prove asymptotic results about the surjectivity of the word map sending (x,y) to the …
It is proved that any countable abelian group $D$ can be embedded as a centre into a $m$-generated group $A$ such that the quotient group $A/D$ is isomorphic to the free Burnside group $B(m,n)$ of rank $m>1$ and of odd period $n\ge665$. The proof is based on some modification of the method which was used by S.I.Adian in his monograph in 1975 for a positive solution of Kontorovich's famous problem from Kourovka Notebook on the existence of a finitely generated non-commutative analogue of the additive group of rational numbers. More precisely, he proved that the desired analogues in which the in…
Let E be the extraspecial p-group of order p^3 and exponent p where p is an odd prime. We determine the mod p cohomology of summands in the stable splitting of p-completed classifying space BE modulo nilpotence.
We develop a version of small cancellation theory in the variety of Burnside groups. More precisely, we show that there exists a critical exponent $n_0$ such that for every odd integer $n\geq n_0$, the well-known classical $C'(1/6)$-small cancellation theory, as well as its graphical generalization and its version for free products, produce examples of infinite $n$-periodic groups. Our result gives a powerful tool for producing (uncountable collections of) examples of $n$-periodic groups with prescribed properties. It can be applied without any prior knowledge in the subject of $n$-periodic gr…
In this note we present an algorithm for the construction of the unit group of the Burnside ring $Ω(G)$ of a finite group $G$ from a list of representatives of the conjugacy classes of subgroups of G.
Let E be the extraspecial p-group of order p^3 and exponent p where p is an odd prime. We consider the mod p cohomology of summands in the stable splitting of p-completed classifying space BE. Moreover, we consider the stable splitting for some finite groups with Sylow p-subgroup E.
We construct the first examples of finitely presented groups with quadratic Dehn function containing a finitely generated infinite torsion subgroup. These examples are "optimal" in the sense that the Dehn function of any such finitely presented group must be at least quadratic. Moreover, we show that for any $n\geq2^{48}$ such that $n$ is either odd or divisible by $2^9$, any infinite free Burnside group with exponent $n$ is a quasi-isometrically embedded subgroup of a finitely presented group with quadratic Dehn function satisfying the Congruence Extension Property.
We prove that the restricted wreath product ${\mathbb{Z}_n \mathbin{\mathrm{wr}} \mathbb{Z}^k}$ has the $R_\infty$-property, i. e. every its automorphism $φ$ has infinite Reidemeister number $R(φ)$, in exactly two cases: (1) for any $k$ and even $n$; (2) for odd $k$ and $n$ divisible by 3. In the remaining cases there are automorphisms with finite Reidemeister number, for which we prove the finite-dimensional twisted Burnside--Frobenius theorem (TBFT): $R(φ)$ is equal to the number of equivalence classes of finite-dimensional irreducible unitary representations fixed by the action ${[ρ]\mapsto…
Let $G$ be a group. The intersection graph $Γ(G)$ of $G$ is an undirected graph without loops and multiple edges defined as follows: the vertex set is the set of all proper non-trivial subgroups of $G$, and there is an edge between two distinct vertices $H$ and $K$ if and only if $H\cap K \neq 1$ where $1$ denotes the trivial subgroup of $G$. In this paper we studied the dominating sets in intersection graphs of finite groups. It turns out a subset of the vertex set is a dominating set if and only if the union of the corresponding subgroups contains the union of all minimal subgroups. We class…
The Artin exponent induced from cyclic subgroups of finite groups was studied extensively by T.Y. Lam. A Burnside ring theoretic version of Lam's results for $p$-groups was given by the author in an earlier paper. Here we look at the Artin exponent induced from the elementary abelian subgroups of finite $p$-groups using some results of A. Dress.
The bifree double Burnside ring $B^Δ(G,G)$ of a finite group $G$ has a natural anti-involution. We study the group $B^Δ_\circ(G,G)$ of orthogonal units in $B^Δ(G,G)$. It is shown that this group is always finite and contains a subgroup isomorphic to $B(G)^\times\rtimes \Out(G)$, where $B(G)^\times$ denotes the unit group of the Burnside ring of $G$ and $\Out(G)$ denotes the outer automorphism group of $G$. Moreover it is shown that if $G$ is nilpotent then $B^Δ_\circ(G,G)\cong B(G)^\times\rtimes \Out(G)$. The results can be interpreted as positive answers to questions on equivalences of $p$-bl…
Presentations for the holomorphs of abelian groups of the form $C_{p^n} \times 1^{m}$ for $p$=2 or an odd prime are given. These presentations extend the results given in Burnside's well-known text on finite groups on the holomorphs for the cyclic groups of orders $p^n$ for $p$ being an odd or even prime.
The classical result, due to Jordan, Burnside, Dickson, says that every normal subgroup of $GL(n, K)$ ($K$ - a field, $n \geq 3$) which is not contained in the center, contains $SL(n, K)$. A. Rosenberg gave description of normal subgroups of $GL(V)$, where $V$ is a vector space of any infinite cardinality dimension over a division ring. However, when he considers subgroups of the direct product of the center and the group of linear transformations $g$ such that $g-id_V$ has finite dimensional range the proof is not complete. We fill this gap for countably dimensional $V$ giving description of …
A group $Γ$ is said to be periodic if for any $g$ in $Γ$ there is a positive integer $n$ with $g^n=id$. We first prove that a finitely generated periodic group acting on the 2-sphere $\SS^2$ by $C^1$-diffeomorphisms with a finite orbit, is finite and conjugate to a subgroup of $\mathrm{O}(3,\R)$ and we use it for proving that a finitely generated periodic group of spherical diffeomorphisms with even bounded orders is finite. Finally, we show that a finitely generated periodic group of homeomorphisms of any orientable compact surface other than the 2-sphere or the 2-torus (which is the purpose …
In this paper we study geometric versions of Burnside's Problem and the von Neumann Conjecture. This is done by considering the notion of a translation-like action. Translation-like actions were introduced by Kevin Whyte as a geometric analogue of subgroup containment. Whyte proved a geometric version of the von Neumann Conjecture by showing that a finitely generated group is non-amenable if and only if it admits a translation-like action by any (equivalently every) non-abelian free group. We strengthen Whyte's result by proving that this translation-like action can be chosen to be transitive …
We provide a complete characterization of the equivariant commutative ring structures of all the factors in the idempotent splitting of the G-equivariant sphere spectrum, including their Hill-Hopkins-Ravenel norms, where G is any finite group. Our results describe explicitly how these structures depend on the subgroup lattice and conjugation in G. Algebraically, our analysis characterizes the multiplicative transfers on the localization of the Burnside ring of G at any idempotent element, which is of independent interest to group theorists. As an application, we obtain an explicit description …
We describe the essential algebra, $\widehat{kB_T}(G)$, of the Burnside biset functor shifted by a group $T$, at a group $G$, in two cases. First, when $G$ and $T$ are both finite abelian groups and $k$ is a field of characteristic $0$. In this case, $\widehat{kB_T}(G)$ is isomorphic to a quotient of the shifted star algebra, which is defined in terms of the subgroups of $G\times G\times T$. The second case is when $G$ and $T$ are any finite groups satisfying $(|G|, |T|)=1$ and $k$ is a commutative unitary ring. In this case, $\widehat{kB_T}(G)$ is isomorphic to a semidirect product of $Out(G)…
Let R be a (unital) commutative ring, and G be a finite group with order invertible in R. We introduce new idempotents in the double Burnside algebra RB(G,G), indexed by conjugacy classes of minimal sections of G, i.e. pairs (T,S) of subgroups of G, where S is a normal subgroup of T contained in the Frattini subgroup of T. These idempotents are orthogonal, and their sum is equal to the identity. It follows that for any biset functor F over R, the evaluation F (G) splits as a direct sum of specific R-modules indexed by minimal sections of G, up to conjugation. The restriction of these construct…
In the note we prove that all composition factors of a finite group possessing a Carter subgroup of odd order either are abelain, or are isomorphic to $L_2(3^{2n+1})$.
For a finite group $G$, we introduce a multiplication on the $\QQ$-vector space with basis $\scrS_{G\times G}$, the set of subgroups of $G\times G$. The resulting $\QQ$-algebra $\Atilde$ can be considered as a ghost algebra for the double Burnside ring $B(G,G)$ in the sense that the mark homomorphism from $B(G,G)$ to $\Atilde$ is a ring homomorphism. Our approach interprets $\QQ B(G,G)$ as an algebra $eAe$, where $A$ is a twisted monoid algebra and $e$ is an idempotent in $A$. The monoid underlying the algebra $A$ is again equal to $\scrS_{G\times G}$ with multiplication given by composition o…
We construct first examples of non-trivial groups without non-cyclic free subgroups whose reduced $C^\ast$-algebra is simple and has unique trace. This answers a question of de la Harpe. Both torsion and torsion free examples are provided. In particular, we show that the reduced $C^\ast$-algebra of the free Burnside group $B(m,n)$ of rank $m\ge 2$ and any sufficiently large odd exponent $n$ is simple and has unique trace.
A subgroup $H$ of a group $G$ is said to be {\it pronormal} in $G$ if $H$ and $H^g$ are conjugate in $\langle H, H^g \rangle$ for each $g \in G$. Some problems in Finite Group Theory, Combinatorics, and Permutation Group Theory were solved in terms of pronormality, therefore, the question of pronormality of a given subgroup in a given group is of interest. Subgroups of odd index in finite groups satisfy a native necessary condition of pronormality. In this paper we continue investigations on pronormality of subgroups of odd index and consider the pronormality question for subgroups of odd inde…
Although any finite Bol loop of odd prime exponent is solvable, we show there exist such Bol loops with trivial center. We also construct finitely generated, infinite, simple Bruck loops of odd prime exponent for sufficiently large primes. This shows that the Burnside problem for Bruck loops has a negative answer.
A subgroup $H$ of a group $G$ is said to be pronormal in $G$ if $H$ and $H^g$ are conjugate in $\langle H, H^g \rangle$ for every $g \in G$. In this paper we classify finite simple groups $E_6(q)$ and ${}^2E_6(q)$ in which all the subgroups of odd index are pronormal. Thus, we complete a classification of finite simple exceptional groups of Lie type in which all the subgroups of odd index are pronormal.
We give a criterion for a finitely generated odd-angled Coxeter group to have a proper finite index subgroup generated by reflections. The answer is given in terms of the least prime divisors of the exponents of the Coxeter relations.
A subgroup $H$ of a group $G$ is said to be pronormal in $G$ if $H$ and $H^g$ are conjugate in $\langle H, H^g\rangle$ for every element $g \in G$. In [Sib. Math. J. 2015. Vol. 56, no. 6] we proved that subgroups of odd indeces are pronormal in many finite simple group. In [Proc. Steklov Inst. Math., to appear] we proved that a group $PSp_{6n}(q)$ with $q \equiv \pm 3 \pmod 8$ contains a nonpronormal subgroup of odd index. In this paper we prove that if $n \not \in \{2^m, 2^m(2^{2k}+1) \mid m, k \in \mathbb{N} \cup \{0\}\}$ then a group $PSp_{2n}(q)$ with $q \equiv \pm 3 \pmod 8$ contains a no…
A subgroup $H$ of a group $G$ is said to be {pronormal} in $G$ if $H$ and $H^g$ are conjugate in $\langle H, H^g \rangle$ for every $g \in G$. Some problems in finite group theory, combinatorics, and permutation group theory were solved in terms of pronormality. In 2012, E. Vdovin and the third author conjectured that the subgroups of odd index are pronormal in finite simple groups. In this paper we disprove their conjecture and discuss a recent progress in the classification of finite simple groups in which the subgroups of odd index are pronormal.
A classification of maximal subgroups of odd index in finite simple groups was given by Liebeck and Saxl and, independently, Kantor in 1980s. In the cases of alternating groups or classical groups of Lie type over fields of odd characteristics, the classification was not complete. The classification was completed by the author in 2008. In the cases of finite simple classical groups of Lie type we used results obtained in Kleidman's PhD thesis. However there is a number of flaws in this PhD thesis. The flaws were corrected by Bray, Holt, and Roney-Dougal in 2013. In this note we provide a revis…
A finite group $G$ is called monomial if every irreducible character of $G$ is induced from a linear character of some subgroup of $G$. One of the main questions regarding monomial groups is whether or not a normal subgroup $N$ of a monomial group $G$ is itself monomial. In the case that $G$ is a group of even order, it has been proved (Dade, van der Waall) that $N$ need not be monomial. Here we show that, if $G$ is a monomial group of order $p^aq^b$, where $p$ and $q$ are distinct odd primes, then any normal subgroup $N$ of $G$ is also monomial.
The theory of biset functors developed by Serge Bouc has been instrumental in the study of the unit group of the Burnside ring of a finite group, in particular for the case of p-groups. The ghost ring of the Burnside ring defines an inflation functor, and becomes a useful tool in studying the Burnside ring functor itself. We are interested in studying the unit group of another representation ring: the trivial source ring of a finite group. In this article, we show how the unit groups of the trivial source ring and its associated ghost ring define inflation functors. Since the trivial source ri…
Let $G$ be a finite group and $R$ be a commutative ring. The Mackey algebra $μ_{R}(G)$ shares a lot of properties with the group algebra $RG$ however, there are some differences. For example, the group algebra is a symmetric algebra and this is not always the case for the Mackey algebra. In this paper we present a systematic approach to the question of the symmetricity of the Mackey algebra, by producing symmetric associative bilinear forms for the Mackey algebra. The category of Mackey functors is a closed symmetric monoidal category, so using the formalism of J.P. May for these categories, S…
