Related papers: Choosing elements from finite fields

Graham Higman published two important papers in 1960. In the first of these papers he proved that for any positive integer $n$ the number of groups of order $p^{n}$ is bounded by a polynomial in $p$, and he formulated his famous PORC…

We prove that the number of groups of order $p^n$ whose Frattini subgroup is central is for fixed $n$ a PORC (`polynomial on residue classes') function of $p$. This extends a result of G. Higman.

In 1878, Jordan proved that if a finite group $G$ has a faithful representation of dimension $n$ over $\mathbb{C}$, then $G$ has a normal abelian subgroup with index bounded above by a function of $n$. The same result fails if one replaces…

A $P_4$-free graph is called a cograph. In this paper we partially characterize finite groups whose power graph is a cograph. As we will see, this problem is a generalization of the determination of groups in which every element has prime…

We study the groups $G$ with the curious property that there exists an element $k\in G$ and a function $f\colon G\to G$ such that $f(xk)=xf(x)$ holds for all $x\in G$. This property arose from the study of near-rings and input-output…

We show that, for any fixed genus $g$, the ordinary generating function for the genus $g$ partitions of an $n$-element set into $k$ blocks is algebraic. The proof involves showing that each such partition may be reduced in a unique way to a…

We compute the number of points over finite fields of the character stack associated to a compact surface group and a reductive group with connected centre. We find that the answer is a Polynomial On Residue Classes (PORC). The key…

For a polynomial map $\mathbf{f} : k^n \to k^m$ ($k$ a field), we investigate those polynomials $g \in k[t_1,\ldots, t_n]$ that can be written as a composition $g = h \circ \mathbf{f}$, where $h: k^m \to k$ is an arbitrary function. In the…

A classical conjecture by Graham Higman states that the number of conjugacy classes of $U_n(q)$, the group of upper triangular $n\times n$ matrices over $\mathbb{F}_q$, is polynomial in $q$, for all $n$. In this paper we present both…

Prolog's ability to return multiple answers on backtracking provides an elegant mechanism to derive reversible encodings of combinatorial objects as Natural Numbers i.e. {\em ranking} and {\em unranking} functions. Starting from a…

We use the Bateman--Horn Conjecture from number theory to give strong evidence of a positive answer to Peter Neumann's question, whether there are infinitely many simple groups of order a product of six primes. (Those with fewer than six…

In this work, we use probability groups, introduced by Harrison in 1979, as a tool to study a semisimple Hopf algebra $H$ with a commutative character ring and prove that the algebra generalized by the dual probability group is the center…

We prove that the number of immediate descendants of order $p^10$ of $G_p$ is not PORC (Polynomial On Residue Classes) where $G_p$ is the $p$-group of order $p^9$ defined by du Sautoy's nilpotent group encoding the elliptic curve…

In this paper we present two new results on the number of certain conjugacy classes of a finite group. For a finite group $G$, let $n(G)$ be the maximum of $k_{p}(G)$ taken over all primes $p$ where $k_{p}(G)$ denotes the number of…

Much progress has been made on the problem of calculating $g(n)$ for various classes of integers $n$, where $g$ is the group-counting function. We approach the inverse problem of solving the equations $g(n) = 6$ and $g(n) = 7$ in $n$. The…

In the $1970$s, Nicolas proved that the partition function $p(n)$ is log-concave for $ n > 25$. In \cite{HNT21}, a precise conjecture on the log-concavity for the plane partition function $\func{pp}(n)$ for $n >11$ was stated. This was…

Let $X$ be an algebraic variety over a finite field $\bF_q$, homogeneous under a linear algebraic group. We show that the number of rational points of $X$ over $\bF_{q^n}$ is a periodic polynomial function of $q^n$ with integer…

We prove a new criterion for the solvability of the finite groups, depending on the function $\psi_k(G)$ which is defined as the sum of $k$-th powers of the element orders of $G$. We show that our result can be used to show the solvability…

Let G be a group of permutations of a denumerable set E. The profile of G is the function phi which counts, for each n, the number phi(n) of orbits of G acting on the n-subsets of E. Counting functions arising this way, and their associated…

Answering a question asked by Hsia and Tucker in their paper on the finiteness of greatest common divisors of iterates of polynomials, we prove that if $f, g \in \mathbb{C}(X)$ are compositionally independent rational functions and $c \in…