Related papers: The exceptional symmetry
It is a simple fact that a group has a trivial automorphism group if and only if it is of order $1$ or $2$. We prove that the same holds for certain families of skew braces, and given any odd prime $p$, we construct a skew brace of order…
Using the Guirardel-Levitt outer space of a free product, we prove that the outer automorphism group of the outer automorphism group of the universal Coxeter group of rank $n \geq 5$ is trivial, and that it is a cyclic group of order 2 if…
An automorphism of an algebraic surface $S$ is called cohomologically (numerically) trivial if it acts identically on the second $l$-adic cohomology group (this group modulo torsion subgroup). Extending the results of S. Mukai and Y.…
We give a new construction of the outer automorphism of the symmetric group on six points. Our construction features a complex Hadamard matrix of order six containing third roots of unity and the algebra of split quaternions over the real…
Among the simplest invariants of the sporadic finite simple groups are their outer automorphism groups. For 12 of the 26 possible isomorphism types of a sporadic simple group G, the outer automorphism group Out(G) has order 2, and in the…
The so-called Tits class, associated to an adjoint absolutely almost simple algebraic group, provides a cohomological obstruction for this group to admit an outer automorphism. If the group has inner type, this obstruction is the only one.…
We show that the sporadic simple group $\M(22)$, the exceptional group of Lie type ${}^2\E_6(2)$ and their automorphism groups are uniquely determined by the approximate structure of the centralizer of an element of order 3 together with…
The question of existence of outer automorphisms of a simple algebraic group $G$ arises naturally both when working with the Galois cohomology of $G$ and as an example of the algebro-geometric problem of determining which connected…
We prove there is no ring with unit group isomorphic to S_n for n \geq 5 and that there is no ring with unit group isomorphic to A_n for n \geq 5, n \neq 8. We give examples of rings with unit groups isomorphic to S_1, S_2, S_3, S_4, A_1,…
In earlier works, it was seen that a ${\mathbb Z}/2$ orbifold of the theory of 24 free two-dimensional chiral fermions admits various sporadic finite simple groups as global symmetry groups when viewed as an ${\cal N}=1$, ${\cal N}=2$, or…
Let Ng be the connected closed nonorientable surface of genus g >= 5 and Mod(Ng) denote the mapping class group of Ng. We prove that the outer automorphism group of Mod(Ng) is either trivial or Z if g is odd, and injects into the mapping…
We describe the outer automorphism group of a one-ended fundamental group of a graph of groups, when edge groups are cyclic, and vertex groups are torsion-free with cyclic centralizers. We show that in this case the outer automorphism group…
The operation of switching a graph $\Gamma$ with respect to a subset $X$ of the vertex set interchanges edges and non-edges between $X$ and its complement, leaving the rest of the graph unchanged. This is an equivalence relation on the set…
The minimal faithful permutation degree $\mu(G)$ of a finite group $G$ is the least integer $n$ such that $G$ is isomorphic to a subgroup of the symmetric group $S_n$. If $G$ has a normal subgroup $N$ such that $\mu(G/N) > \mu(G)$, then $G$…
In this paper we examine embeddings of alternating groups and symmetric groups into almost simple groups of exceptional type. In particular, we prove that unless the alternating or symmetric group has degree 6 or 7, there is no maximal…
We prove that asymptotically almost all matroids have a trivial automorphism group, or an automorphism group generated by a single transposition. Additionally, we show that asymptotically almost all sparse paving matroids have a trivial…
We refer to the set of the orders of elements of a finite group as its spectrum and say that finite groups are isospectral if their spectra coincide. In the paper we determine all finite groups isospectral to the simple groups $S_6(q)$,…
We determine which simple algebraic groups of type $^3D_4$ over arbitrary fields of characteristic different from 2 admit outer automorphisms of order 3, and classify these automorphisms up to conjugation. The criterion is formulated in…
We prove that the automorphism group of a general complete intersection $X$ in a projective space is trivial with a few well-understood exceptions. We also prove that the automorphism group of a complete intersection $X$ acts on the…
We classify the possible discrete (finite) symmetries of two--dimensional critical models described by unitary minimal conformally invariant theories. We find that all but six models have the group Z_2 as maximal symmetry. Among the six…