English

Invariable generation of finite classical groups

Group Theory 2023-06-05 v3

Abstract

A subset of a group invariably generates the group if it generates even when we replace the elements by any of their conjugates. In a 2016 paper, Pemantle, Peres and Rivin show that the probability that four randomly selected elements invariably generate SnS_n is bounded away from zero by an absolute constant for all nn. Subsequently, Eberhard, Ford and Green have shown that the probability that three randomly selected elements invariably generate SnS_n tends to zero as nn \rightarrow \infty. In this paper, we prove an analogous result for the finite classical groups. More precisely, let Gr(q)G_r(q) be a finite classical group of rank rr over Fq\mathbb{F}_q. We show that for qq large enough, the probability that four randomly selected elements invariably generate Gr(q)G_r(q) is bounded away from zero by an absolute constant for all rr, and for three elements the probability tends to zero as qq \rightarrow \infty and rr \rightarrow \infty. We use the fact that most elements in Gr(q)G_r(q) are separable and the well-known correspondence between classes of maximal tori containing separable elements in classical groups and conjugacy classes in their Weyl groups.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1910.03623,
  title  = {Invariable generation of finite classical groups},
  author = {Eilidh McKemmie},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1910.03623},
  year   = {2023}
}

Comments

22 pages

R2 v1 2026-06-23T11:38:00.472Z