Related papers: Enumerating Palindromes and Primitives in Rank Two…

We call a finite group irrational if none of its elements is conjugate to a distinct power of itself. We prove that those groups are solvable and describe certain classes of these groups, where the above property is only required for…

Let $G$ be a finite group. Let $\rho(G) = \prod_{g \in G} o(g)={p_1}^{\alpha_1} {p_2}^{\alpha_2} \cdots {p_k}^{\alpha_k}$, where $p_1, p_2, \cdots, p_k$ are distinct prime numbers and $o(g)$ denotes the order of $g \in G$. The set of…

Let $P_k$ be the subgroup generated by $k$th powers of primitive elements in $F_r$, the free group of rank $r$. We show that $F_2/P_k$ is finite if and only if $k$ is $1$, $2$, or $3$. We also fully characterize $F_2/P_k$ for $k = 2,3,4$.…

The rank of a finite semigroup is the smallest number of elements required to generate the semigroup. A formula is given for the rank of an arbitrary (non necessarily regular) Rees matrix semigroup over a group. The formula is expressed in…

We show that if $w$ is a multilinear commutator word and $G$ a finite group in which every metanilpotent subgroup generated by $w$-values is of rank at most $r$, then the rank of the verbal subgroup $w(G)$ is bounded in terms of $r$ and $w$…

We prove a number of results on the structure and enumeration of palindromes and antipalindromes. In particular, we study conjugates of palindromes, palindromic pairs, rich words, and the counterparts of these notions for antipalindromes.

A finite group $G$ is \emph{coprimely-invariably generated} if there exists a set of generators $\{g_1, ..., g_u\}$ of $G$ with the property that the orders $|g_1|, ..., |g_u|$ are pairwise coprime and that for all $x_1, ..., x_u \in G$ the…

We prove that every group ring of a non-abelian locally free group which is the union of an ascending sequence of free groups is primitive. In particular, every group ring of a countable non-abelian locally free group is primitive. In…

Given a group-word w and a group G, the verbal subgroup w(G) is the one generated by all w-values in G. The word w is called concise if w(G) is finite whenever the set of w-values in G is finite. It is an open question whether every word is…

We are interested in semigroups of the form $\langle G,a\rangle\setminus G$, where $G$ is a permutation group of degree $n$ and $a$ a non-permutation on the domain of $G$. A theorem of the first author, Mitchell and Schneider shows that, if…

Given nontrivial finite groups $A$ and $B$, not both of order 2, we prove that every finite simple group of sufficiently large rank is an image of the free product $A \ast B$. To show this, we prove that every finite simple group of…

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…

We prove that the poset of $q$-decreasing words equipped with the componentwise order forms a lattice. We enumerate the join-irreducible elements for arbitrary $q>0$, and for any positive rational number $q$, we determine the number of…

Let $G$ be a transitive permutation group acting on a finite set $\Omega$ with $|\Omega|\geqslant 2$. An element of $G$ is said to be a derangement if it has no fixed points on $\Omega$, and by a theorem of Jordan from 1872, $G$ always…

Let $\mathfrak A$ be an alphabet and $W$ be a set of words in the free monoid ${\mathfrak A}^*$. Let $S(W)$ denote the Rees quotient over the ideal of ${\mathfrak A}^*$ consisting of all words that are not subwords of words in $W$. A set of…

We show the classical $q$-Stirling numbers of the second kind can be expressed compactly as a pair of statistics on a subset of restricted growth words. The resulting expressions are polynomials in $q$ and $1+q$. We extend this enumerative…

We construct a sieve that enumerates rational ``imbalances'' of the form $(p-q)/(p+q)$ for integers $p\ge2$ and $1\le q<p$, ordered lexicographically by $(p,q)$. Each imbalance is reduced to lowest terms, and we record the sequence of…

An element $g$ of a group is called {\em reversible} if it is conjugate in the group to its inverse. This paper is about reversibles in the group $G$ of formally-invertible pairs of formal power series in two variables, with complex…

We characterize binary words that have exactly two unbordered conjugates and show that they can be expressed as a product of two palindromes.

We investigate the least number of palindromic factors in an infinite word. We first consider general alphabets, and give answers to this problem for periodic and non-periodic words, closed or not under reversal of factors. We then…