Faster Isomorphism for $p$-Groups of Class 2 and Exponent $p$

The group isomorphism problem determines whether two groups, given by their Cayley tables, are isomorphic. For groups with order $n$, an algorithm with $n^{(\log n + O(1))}$ running time, attributed to Tarjan, was proposed in the 1970s [Mil78]. Despite the extensive study over the past decades, the current best group isomorphism algorithm has an $n^{(1 / 4 + o(1))\log n}$ running time [Ros13]. The isomorphism testing for $p$-groups of (nilpotent) class 2 and exponent $p$ has been identified as a major barrier to obtaining an $n^{o(\log n)}$ time algorithm for the group isomorphism problem. Although the $p$-groups of class 2 and exponent $p$ have much simpler algebraic structures than general groups, the best-known isomorphism testing algorithm for this group class also has an $n^{O(\log n)}$ running time. In this paper, we present an isomorphism testing algorithm for $p$-groups of class 2 and exponent $p$ with running time $n^{O((\log n)^{5/6})}$ for any prime $p > 2$. Our result is based on a novel reduction to the skew-symmetric matrix tuple isometry problem [IQ19]. To obtain the reduction, we develop several tools for matrix space analysis, including a matrix space individualization-refinement method and a characterization of the low rank matrix spaces.