We investigate properties of finite transitive permutation groups $(G, Ω)$ in which all proper subgroups of $G$ act intransitively on $Ω.$ In particular, we are interested in reduction theorems for minimally transitive representations of solvable groups.
We improve the upper bounds (in terms of $n$) in [9] and [13] on the minimal number of elements required to generate a minimally transitive permutation group of degree $n$.
We prove that the base size of a transitive group $G$ with solvable point stabilizer and with trivial solvable radical is not greater than $k$ provided the same statement holds for the group of $G$-induced automorphisms of each nonabelian composition factor of $G$.
A classification is given for factorizations of almost simple groups with at least one factor solvable, and it is then applied to characterize $s$-arc-transitive Cayley graphs of solvable groups, leading to a striking corollary: Except the cycles, every non-bipartite connected 3-arc-transitive Cayley graph of a solvable group is a cover of the Petersen graph or the Hoffman-Singleton graph.
We prove the following result. Let q be a power of an odd prime and let Sp(2m,q) denote the symplectic group of degree 2m over F_q. Then if q=1 mod 4, no solvable subgroup of Sp(2m,q) acts transitively on a complete symplectic spread defined on the underlying vector space of dimension 2m, unless m=1 and q=5. The solvable group Sp(2,3) of order 24 acts transitively on a complete symplectic spread defined on a two-dimensional vector space over F_5. By contrast, when q=3 mod 4, there is a metacyclic group of order 2m(q^m+1) that acts transitively on a complete symplectic spread.
Every simply connected and connected solvable Lie group $G$ admits a simply transitive action on a nilpotent Lie group $H$ via affine transformations. Although the existence is guaranteed, not much is known about which Lie groups $G$ can act simply transitive on which Lie groups $H$. So far the focus was mainly on the case where $G$ is also nilpotent, leading to a characterization depending only on the corresponding Lie algebras and related to the notion of post-Lie algebra structures. This paper studies two different aspects of this problem. First, we give a method to check whether a given ac…
A transitive permutation group of prime degree is doubly transitive or solvable. We give a direct proof of this theorem by Burnside which uses neither S-ring type arguments, nor representation theory.
We present a local and constructive differential geometric description of finite-dimensional solvable and transitive Lie algebras of vector fields. We show that it implies a Lie's conjecture for such Lie algebras. Also infinite-dimensional analytical solvable and transitive Lie algebras of vector fields whose derivative ideal is nilpotent can be adapted to this scheme.
We refer to $d(G)$ as the minimal cardinality of a generating set of a finite group $G$, and say that $G$ is $d$-generated if $d(G)\leq d$. A transitive permutation group $G$ is called $\frac{3}{2}$-transitive if a point stabilizer $G_α$ is nontrivial and its orbits distinct from $\{α\}$ are of the same size. We prove that $d(G)\leq4$ for every primitive $\frac{3}{2}$-transitive permutation group $G$, moreover, $G$ is $2$-generated except for the very particular solvable affine groups that we completely describe. In particular, all finite $2$-transitive and $2$-homogeneous groups are $2$-gener…
We give a sufficient condition for parameter rigidity of actions of solvable Lie groups, by vanishing of (uncountably many) first cohomologies of the orbit foliations. In some cases, we can prove that vanishing of finitely many cohomologies is sufficient. For this purpose we use a rigidity property of quasiisometry. As an application we prove some actions of 2-step solvable Lie groups on mapping tori are parameter rigid. Special cases of these actions are considered in a paper of Matsumoto and Mitsumatsu. We also remark on the relation between transitive locally free actions of solvable Lie gr…
Suppose that $G$ is a finite, transitive, solvable permutation group acting on a set $S$ with $n$ elements. Let $G_0$ be the stabilizer of a point $α\in Ω$. Define the rank of a permutation group, denoted $r(G),$ as the number of distinct orbits of $G_0$ in $S$ (including the trivial orbit $\{α\}$). Huppert \cite{Huppert} and Foulser \cite{Foulser} classified all finite, solvable, permutation groups of rank two and three respectively, and Foulser restricted the rank four groups to a small list of possibilities. This paper completes the classification of all groups of rank less than $5$ by expl…
In 2011, Fang et al. in (J. Combin. Theory A 118 (2011) 1039-1051) posed the following problem: Classify non-normal locally primitive Cayley graphs of finite simple groups of valency $d$, where either $d\leq 20$ or $d$ is a prime number. The only case for which the complete solution of this problem is known is of $d=3$. Except this, a lot of efforts have been made to attack this problem by considering the following problem: Characterize finite nonabelian simple groups which admit non-normal locally primitive Cayley graphs of certain valency $d\geq4$. Even for this problem, it was only solved f…
We establish a sharp sufficient condition for groups acting on trees to be highly transitive when the action on the tree is minimal of general type. This gives new examples of highly transitive groups, including icc non-solvable Baumslag-Solitar groups, thus answering a question of Hull and Osin.
We study a class of finite groups $G$ which behave similarly to elementary abelian $p$-groups with $p$ prime, that is, there exists a subgroup $N$ such that all elements of $G\setminus N$ are conjugate or inverse-conjugate under $\Aut(G)$. In this paper, we show that such groups are solvable. As an application, we characterise a class of normal edge-transitive Cayley graphs of $G$, which are complete multipartite graphs.
Let a finite group $G$ act transitively on a finite set $X$. A subset $S\subseteq G$ is said to be {\it intersecting} if for any $s_1,s_2\in S$, the element $s_1^{-1}s_2$ has a fixed point. The action is said to have the {\it weak Erdős-Ko-Rado} property, if the cardinality of any intersecting set is at most $|G|/|X|$. If, moreover, any maximal intersecting set is a coset of a point stabilizer, the action is said to have the {\it strong Erdős-Ko-Rado} property. In this paper we will investigate the weak and strong Erdős-Ko-Rado property and attempt to classify the groups whose all transitive a…
We reduce a case of the hidden subgroup problem (HSP) in SL(2; q), PSL(2; q), and PGL(2; q), three related families of finite groups of Lie type, to efficiently solvable HSPs in the affine group AGL(1; q). These groups act on projective space in an almost 3-transitive way, and we use this fact in each group to distinguish conjugates of its Borel (upper triangular) subgroup, which is also the stabilizer subgroup of an element of projective space. Our observation is mainly group-theoretic, and as such breaks little new ground in quantum algorithms. Nonetheless, these appear to be the first posit…
Motivated by the renormalization method in statistical physics, Itai Benjamini defined a finitely generated infinite group G to be scale-invariant if there is a nested sequence of finite index subgroups G_n that are all isomorphic to G and whose intersection is a finite group. He conjectured that every scale-invariant group has polynomial growth, hence is virtually nilpotent. We disprove his conjecture by showing that the following groups (mostly finite-state self-similar groups) are scale-invariant: the lamplighter groups F\wr\Z, where F is any finite Abelian group; the solvable Baumslag-Soli…