Related papers: Coverings of the Symmetric and Alternating Groups

We extend to alternating groups $A_n$ several results about symmetric groups asserting that under various conditions on a conjugacy class, or more generally, a normal subset, $C$ of $S_n$, we have $C^2 \supseteq A_n\setminus\{1\}$

Let H, K be subgroups of G. We investigate the intersection properties of left and right cosets of these subgroups.

In 1999 V. Ivanov and S. Kerov observed that structure constants of algebras of conjugacy classes of symmetric groups $S_n$ admit a stabilization (in a non-obvious sense) as $n\to \infty$. We extend their construction to a class of pairs of…

Let G be a finite group and H a normal subgroup such that G/H is cyclic. Given a conjugacy class g^G of G we define its centralizing subgroup to be HC_G(g). Let K be such that H\le K\le G. We show that the G-conjugacy classes contained in K…

Although the conjugacy classes of the general linear group are known, it is not obvious (from the canonic form of matrices) that two permutation matrices are similar if and only if they are conjugate as permutations in the symmetric group,…

We give explicit, practical conditions that determine whether or not a closed, connected subgroup H of G = SU(2,n) has the property that there exists a compact subset C of G with CHC = G. To do this, we fix a Cartan decomposition G = K A K…

We use algebraic techniques to study homological filling functions of groups and their subgroups. If $G$ is a group admitting a finite $(n+1)$--dimensional $K(G,1)$ and $H \leq G$ is of type $F_{n+1}$, then the $n^{th}$--homological filling…

We prove that if a finite group $G$ contains a conjugacy class $K$ whose square is of the form $1 \cup D$, where $D$ is a conjugacy class of $G$, then $\langle K \rangle$ is a solvable proper normal subgroup of $G$ and we completely…

For G = SL(3,R) and G = SO(2,n), we give explicit, practical conditions that determine whether or not a closed, connected subgroup H of G has the property that there exists a compact subset C of G with CHC = G. To do this, we fix a Cartan…

We consider the problem of classifying pairs $x,y \in G$ such that $K x K y K = G$ where $G$ is a simple compact connected Lie group and $K$ is a symmetric subgroup. We give a necessary condition on $x,y$ for all simply connected $G$, and a…

We prove a convolution formula for the conjugacy classes in symmetric groups conjectured by the second author. A combinatorial interpretation of coefficients is provided. As a main tool we introduce new semigroup of partial permutations. We…

We discuss different mixing properties for triples of finite von Neumann algebras $B\subset N\subset M$, and we introduce families of triples of groups $H<K<G$ whose associated von Neumann algebras $L(H)\subset L(K)\subset L(G)$ satisfy…

Let $n\in \mathbb{N}$. Houghton's group $H_n$ is the group of permutations of $\{1,\dots, n\}\times \mathbb{N}$, that eventually act as a translation in each copy of $\mathbb{N}$. We prove the solvability of the conjugacy problem and…

In this paper we show that if S is a simple classical group, a group G is contained in inner-diagonal automorphisms of S and contains S, and H is a solvable Hall subgroup of G, then there exists five conjugates of H, whose intersection is…

Let $G$ be a finite group, $N$ a normal subgroup of $G$ and $x\in G-N$. We discuss when the coset $Nx$ is contained in the union of two conjugacy classes, $K$ and $D$, of $G$. We show that $N$ need not be solvable, and can even be…

A set of proper subgroups is a covering for a group if its union is the whole group. The minimal number of subgroups needed to cover $G$ is called the covering number of $G$, denoted by $\sigma(G)$. Determining $\sigma(G)$ is an open…

In this paper we investigate the minimum number of maximal subgroups H_i for i=1 ...k of the symmetric group S_n (or the alternating group A_n) such that each element in the group S_n (respectively A_n) lies in some conjugate of one of the…

Let $G$ be a finite group and $N$ a normal subgroup of $G$. We determine the structure of $N$ when the diameter of the graph associated to the $G$-conjugacy classes contained in $N$ is as large as possible, that is, is equal to three.

Let K be a field of positive characteristic p, let R be either a group algebra K[G] or a restricted enveloping algebra u(L), and let I be the augmentation ideal of R. We first characterize those R for which I satisfies a polynomial identity…

We prove that the double covers of the alternating and symmetric groups are determined by their complex group algebras. To be more precise, let $n\geq 5$ be an integer, $G$ a finite group, and let $\AAA$ and $\SSS^\pm$ denote the double…