Related papers: Simple groups, generation and probabilistic method…

The aim of this thesis is to determine classes of NP relations for which random generation and approximate counting problems admit an efficient solution. Since efficient rank implies efficient random generation, we first investigate some…

We survey the known results about simple permutations. In particular, we present a number of recent enumerative and structural results pertaining to simple permutations, and show how simple permutations play an important role in the study…

In this paper we determine the irreducible projective representations of sporadic simple groups over an arbitrary algebraically closed field F, whose image contains an almost cyclic matrix of prime-power order. A matrix M is called cyclic…

We are now witnessing a rapid growth of a new part of group theory which has become known as "statistical group theory". A typical result in this area would say something like ``a random element (or a tuple of elements) of a group G has a…

We prove that every finite simple group of Lie type $G$ can be generated by three regular unipotent elements. In certain cases we show that two regular unipotents are sufficient to generate $G$.

Given an initial family of sets, we may take unions, intersections and complements of the sets contained in this family in order to form a new collection of sets; our construction process is done recursively until we obtain the last family.…

It is a well-known open problem since the 1970s whether a finitely generated perfect group can be normally generated by a single element or not. We prove that the topological version of this problem has an affirmative answer as long as we…

We prove that under two natural probabilistic models (studied by Cleary, Elder, Rechnitzer and Taback), the probability that a random pair of elements of Thompson's group $F$ generate the entire group is positive. We also prove that for any…

Let $G$ be a simple algebraic group over the algebraic closure of $GF(p)$ ($p$ prime), and let $G(q)$ denote a corresponding finite group of Lie type over $GF(q)$, where $q$ is a power of $p$. Let $X$ be an irreducible subvariety of $G^r$…

A group $G$ is said to be $\frac{3}{2}$-generated if every nontrivial element belongs to a generating pair. It is easy to see that if $G$ has this property then every proper quotient of $G$ is cyclic. In this paper we prove that the…

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…

Initial steps are presented towards understanding which finitely generated groups are almost surely generated as semigroups by the path of a random walk on the group.

We propose a general conjecture on decompositions of finite simple groups as products of conjugates of an arbitrary subset. We prove this conjecture for bounded subsets of arbitrary finite simple groups, and for large subsets of groups of…

We prove that every non-abelian finite simple group is generated by an involution and an element of prime order.

A simple permutation is one that does not map a nontrivial interval onto an interval. It was recently proved by Albert and Atkinson that a permutation class with only finitely simple permutations has an algebraic generating function. We…

A subgroup of a finite group G is said to be second maximal if it is maximal in every maximal subgroup of G that contains it. A question which has received considerable attention asks: can every positive integer occur as the number of the…

Let $d \geq 2$ be an integer. We conjecture that there is a finitely generated perfect group whose homomorphic images include all finite $d$-generated perfect groups. We prove a special case of this conjecture for the finite perfect groups…

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 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…

We investigate the isolated points in the space of finitely generated groups. We give a workable characterization of isolated groups and study their hereditary properties. Various examples of groups are shown to yield isolated groups. We…