Related papers: How long does it take to generate a group?

Let $G$ be a finite $2$-generated non-cyclic group. The spread of $G$ is the largest integer $k$ such that for any nontrivial elements $x_1, \ldots, x_k$, there exists $y \in G$ such that $G = \langle x_i, y\rangle$ for all $i$. The more…

We give an arithmetic criterion which is sufficient to imply the discreteness of various two-generator subgroups of $PSL(2,{\bold C})$. We then examine certain two-generator groups which arise as extremals in various geometric problems in…

In this paper we obtain significant bounds for the number of maximal subgroups of a given index of a finite group. These results allow us to give new bounds for the number of random generators needed to generate a finite $d$-generated group…

For a subgroup $H$ of a finite group $G$, the Frobenius graph $\Gamma(G, H)$ records the constituents of the restrictions to $H$ of the irreducible characters of $G$. We investigate when this graph has diameter 3.

Every finite group $G$ has a normal series each of whose factors is either a solvable group or a direct product of nonabelian simple groups. The minimum number of nonsolvable factors attained on all possible such series is called the…

We investigate the extent to which the exchange relation holds in finite groups $G$. We define a new equivalence relation $\equiv_{\mathrm{m}}$, where two elements are equivalent if each can be substituted for the other in any generating…

It is well known that results on zero-sum sequences over a finitely generated abelian group can be translated to statements on generators of rings of invariants of the dual group. Here the direction of the transfer of information between…

A subset of the Hamming cube over $n$-letter alphabet is said to be $d$-maximal if its diameter is $d$, and adding any point increases the diameter. Our main result shows that each $d$-maximal set is either of size at most $(n+o(n))^d$ or…

For a semigroup $S$ whose universal right congruence is finitely generated (or, equivalently, a semigroup satisfying the homological finiteness property of being type right-$FP_1$), the right diameter of $S$ is a parameter that expresses…

The rank of a point-line geometry G is usually defined as the generating rank of G, namely the minimal cardinality of a generating set. However, when the subspace lattice of G satisfies the Exchange Property we can also try a different…

Given a graph $G$, let $\mathrm{diam}(G)$ be the greatest distance between any two vertices of $G$ which lie in the same connected component, and let $\mathrm{diam}^+(G)$ be the greatest distance between any two vertices of $G$; so…

Let $G=(V,E)$ be a connected graph. A vertex $w\in V$ distinguishes two elements (vertices or edges) $x,y\in E\cup V$ if $d_G(w,x)\ne d_G(w,y)$. A set $S$ of vertices in a connected graph $G$ is a mixed metric generator for $G$ if every two…

The maximal normal subgroup growth type of a finitely generated group is $n^{\log n}$. Very little is known about groups with this type of growth. In particular, the following is a long standing problem: Let $\Gamma$ be a group and $\Delta$…

In this paper we are concerned with the conjecture that, for any set of generators S of the symmetric group of degree n, the word length in terms of S of every permutation is bounded above by a polynomial of n. We prove this conjecture for…

One of the most interesting problems on maximum nullity (minimum rank) is to characterize $M(\mathcal{G})$ ($mr(\mathcal{G})$) for a graph $\mathcal{G}$. In this regard, many researchers have been trying to find an upper or lower bound for…

We prove that if L is a finite simple group of Lie type and A a symmetric set of generators of L, then A grows i.e |AAA| > |A|^(1+epsilon) where epsilon depends only on the Lie rank of L, or AAA=L. This implies that for a family of simple…

Let $G$ be a finite abelian group. The critical number ${\rm cr}(G)$ of $G$ is the least positive integer $\ell$ such that every subset $A\subseteq G\setminus\{0\}$ of cardinality at least $\ell$ spans $G$, i.e., every element of $G$ can be…

Previously the second author has constructed by cobordism methods, an invariant associated to a finite group $G$. This invariant approximates the number of subgroups of a group, giving in some cases the number of abelian and cyclic…

Motivated by the Benjamini-Schramm non-unicity of percolation conjecture we study the following question. For a given finitely generated non-amenable group $\Gamma$, does there exist a generating set $S$ such that the Cayley graph…

It is well known that if G is a finite group then the group of endotrivial modules is finitely generated. In this paper we prove that for an arbitrary finite group scheme G, and for any fixed integer n > 0, there are only finitely many…