Related papers: The base size of a primitive diagonal group
This article began as a study of the structure of infinite permutation groups G in which point stabilisers are finite and all infinite normal subgroups are transitive. That led to two variations. One is the generalisation in which point…
Let $G$ be a finite simple group. By a theorem of Guralnick and Kantor, $G$ contains a conjugacy class $C$ such that for each non-identity element $x \in G$, there exists $y \in C$ with $G = \langle x,y\rangle$. Building on this deep…
We obtain upper bounds on the composition length of a finite permutation group in terms of the degree and the number of orbits, and analogous bounds for primitive, quasiprimitive and semiprimitive groups. Similarly, we obtain upper bounds…
Let $G$ be a transitive permutation group acting on $\Omega$. In this paper, we introduce and study the parameter ${\bf m}(G)$, which denotes the size of the smallest set of points $A$ such that, for every permutation $g\in G$, $A \cap A^g$…
Given a finite group $G$ and a set $A$ of generators, the diameter diam$(\Gamma(G,A))$ of the Cayley graph $\Gamma(G,A)$ is the smallest $\ell$ such that every element of $G$ can be expressed as a word of length at most $\ell$ in $A \cup…
Let G be a group and S a subset of G that generates G. For each x in G define the length l_S(x) of x relative to S to be the minimal k such that x is a product of k elements of S. The supremum of the values l_S(x), x \in G, is called the…
Let $G$ be a finite permutation group acting on a set $\Omega$. An ordered sequence $(\omega_1,\ldots,\omega_\ell)$ of elements of $\Omega$ is an irredundant base for $G$ if the pointwise stabilizer of the sequence is trivial and no point…
The minimal degree of a permutation group $G$ is the minimum number of points not fixed by non-identity elements of $G$. Lower bounds on the minimal degree have strong structural consequences on $G$. Babai conjectured that if a primitive…
We prove that the base size of a transitive group $G$ with solvable point stabilizer and with trivial solvable radical is not greater than $k$ provided the same statement holds for the group of $G$-induced automorphisms of each nonabelian…
We prove that the maximum length of an irredundant base for a primitive action of a finite simple group of Lie type is bounded above by a function which is a polynomial in the rank of the group. We give examples to show that this type of…
A primary covering of a finite group $G$ is a family of proper subgroups of $G$ whose union contains the set of elements of $G$ having order a prime power. We denote with $\sigma_0(G)$ the smallest size of a primary covering of $G$, and…
The commutative subgroup width of a group $G$ is the smallest $k$ such that there are abelian subgroups $A_0,A_1,\ldots,A_{k-1}\leq G$ with $G=A_0A_1\cdots A_{k-1}$. Commutative (inverse) submonoid width is defined analogously. In 2002,…
Let $G$ be a finite primitive permutation group on a set $\Omega$ with nontrivial point stabilizer $G_{\alpha}$. We say that $G$ is extremely primitive if $G_{\alpha}$ acts primitively on each of its orbits in $\Omega \setminus \{\alpha\}$.…
We give upper bounds on the essential dimension of (quasi-)simple algebraic groups over an algebraically closed field that hold in all characteristics. The results depend on showing that certain representations are generically free. In…
We characterise the primitive 2-closed groups $G$ of rank at most four that are not the automorphism group of a graph or digraph and show that if the degree is at least 2402 then there are just two infinite families or $G\leqslant…
Let G be a finite abelian group. We examine the discrepancy between subspaces of l^2(G) which are diagonalized in the standard basis and subspaces which are diagonalized in the dual Fourier basis. The general principle is that a Fourier…
For a positive integer $k$, a group $G$ is said to be totally $k$-closed if for each set $\Omega$ upon which $G$ acts faithfully, $G$ is the largest subgroup of $\mathrm{Sym}(\Omega)$ that leaves invariant each of the $G$-orbits in the…
We determine upper bounds for the maximum order of an element of a finite almost simple group with socle T in terms of the minimum index m(T) of a maximal subgroup of T: for T not an alternating group we prove that, with finitely many…
A transitive permutation group $G$ on a finite set $\Omega$ is said to be pre-primitive if every $G$-invariant partition of $\Omega$ is the orbit partition of a subgroup of $G$. It follows that pre-primitivity and quasiprimitivity are…
Given a finite group $G$ and a prime $p$, let $\mathcal{A}_p(G)$ be the poset of nontrivial elementary abelian $p$-subgroups of $G$. The group $G$ satisfies the Quillen dimension property at $p$ if $\mathcal{A}_p(G)$ has non-zero homology…