Related papers: Base sizes of primitive groups: bounds with explic…

Let $V$ be a vector space of dimension $d$ over $F_q$, a finite field of $q$ elements, and let $G \le GL(V) \cong GL_d(q)$ be a linear group. A base of $G$ is a set of vectors whose pointwise stabiliser in $G$ is trivial. We prove that if…

Let $G$ be the alternating group of degree $n$. Let $\omega(G)$ be the maximal size of a subset $S$ of $G$ such that $\langle x,y \rangle = G$ whenever $x,y \in S$ and $x \neq y$ and let $\sigma(G)$ be the minimal size of a family of proper…

Let $G$ be a $p$-group for some prime $p$. Let $n$ be the positive integer so that $|G:Z(G)| = p^n$. Suppose $A$ is a maximal abelian subgroup of $G$. Let $$p^l = {\rm max} \{|Z(C_G (g)):Z(G)| : g \in G \setminus Z(G)\},$$ $$p^b = {\rm max}…

Let $G$ be a finite permutation group of degree $n$ and let ${\rm ifix}(G)$ be the involution fixity of $G$, which is the maximum number of fixed points of an involution. In this paper we study the involution fixity of almost simple…

The minimal faithful permutation degree $\mu(G)$ of a finite group $G$ is the least nonnegative integer $n$ such that $G$ embeds in the symmetric group $\Sym(n)$. We prove that if $H$ is a group then $\mu(G)=\mu(G\times H)$ for some group…

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…

The representation dimension of a finite group $G$ is the minimal dimension of a faithful complex linear representation of $G$. We prove that the representation dimension of any finite group $G$ is at most $\sqrt{|G|}$ except if $G$ is a…

Every finite group $G$ has a normal series each of whose factors is either a solvable group or a direct product of non-abelian simple groups. The minimum number of nonsolvable factors, attained on all possible such series in $G$, is called…

Let $G$ be a permutation group of degree $n$ and let $s(G)$ denote the number of set-orbits of $G$. We determine $\inf(\frac {\log_2 s(G)} n)$ over all groups $G$ that satisfy certain restrictions on composition factors (i.e. $Alt(k), k >…

Various descending chains of subgroups of a finite permutation group can be used to define a sequence of `basic' permutation groups that are analogues of composition factors for abstract finite groups. Primitive groups have been the…

We prove that if $G$ is a transitive permutation group of sufficiently large degree $n$, then either $G$ is primitive and Frobenius, or the proportion of derangements in $G$ is larger than $1/(2n^{1/2})$. This is sharp, generalizes…

Recently, we have found a non-finitely based involution semigroup of order five. It is natural to question what is the smallest order of non-finitely based involution semigroups. It is known that every involution semigroup of order up to…

Let $G \leqslant {\rm Sym}(\Omega)$ be a finite transitive permutation group and recall that an element in $G$ is a derangement if it has no fixed points on $\Omega$. Let $\Delta(G)$ be the set of derangements in $G$ and define $\delta(G) =…

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 show that every finite group $G$ of size at least $3$ has a nilpotent subgroup of class at most $2$ and size at least $|G|^{1/32\log\log|G|}$. This answers a question of Pyber, and is essentially best possible.

The minimal faithful permutation degree $\mu(G)$ of a finite group $G$ is the least nonnegative integer $n$ such that $G$ embeds in the symmetric group $\Sym(n)$. Clearly $\mu(G \times H) \le \mu(G) + \mu(H)$ for all finite groups $G$ and…

We prove that any multiplicative subgroup G of the prime field f_p with |G| < p^{1/2} satisfies |3G| \gg |G|^2 / \log |G|. Also, we obtain a bound for the multiplicative energy of any nonzero shift of G, namely E^* (G+x) \ll |G|^2 log |G|,…

This note presents an upper bound for the least prime primitive roots $g^*(p)$ modulo $p$, a large prime. The current literature has several estimates of the least prime primitive root $g^*(p)$ modulo a prime $p\geq 2$ such as $g^*(p)\ll…

Let $G$ be a permutation group acting on a finite set $\Omega$ of cardinality $n$. The number of orbits of the induced action of $G$ on the set $\Omega_m$ of all size $m$ subsets of $\Omega$ satisfies the trivial inequalities…

A subset $B$ of an Abelian group $G$ is called a difference basis of $G$ if each element $g\in G$ can be written as the difference $g=a-b$ of some elements $a,b\in B$. The smallest cardinality $|B|$ of a difference basis $B\subset G$ is…