Related papers: Base sizes of primitive groups: bounds with explic…
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…
An unrefinable chain of a finite group $G$ is a chain of subgroups $G = G_0 > G_1 > \cdots > G_t = 1$, where each $G_i$ is a maximal subgroup of $G_{i-1}$. The length (respectively, depth) of $G$ is the maximal (respectively, minimal)…
Fix a prime $p$ and an integer $m$ with $p> m \geq 2$. Define the family of finite groups \[ G_n :=SL_m (\mathbb{Z}/p^{n}\mathbb{Z}) \] for $n=1,2,... $. We will prove that there exist two positive constants $C$ and $d$ such that for any…
Let G be a linear group acting on the finite vector space V and assume that (|G|,|V|)=1. In this paper we prove that G has a base size at most two and this estimate is sharp. This generalizes and strengthens several former results…
Given a permutation group $G$ on a finite set $\Omega$, let $G^{(k)}$ denote the $k$-closure of $G$, that is, the largest permutation group on $\Omega$ having the same orbits in the induced action on $\Omega^k$ as $G$. Recall that a group…
We describe the methods and results of a classification of the non-synchronizing primitive permutation groups of degree up to 624. We make use of theory and computation to determine the primitive groups of degree up to 624 that are…
We give an upper bound of $n((n-1)!-(n-3)!)$ for the possible largest size of a subsemigroup of the full transformational semigroup over $n$ elements consisting only of nonpermutational transformations. As an application we gain the same…
We introduce the notion of the depth of a finite group $G$, defined as the minimal length of an unrefinable chain of subgroups from $G$ to the trivial subgroup. In this paper we investigate the depth of (non-abelian) finite simple groups.…
L. Babai has shown that a faithful permutation representation of a nonsplit extension of a group by an alternating group $A_k$ must have degree at least $k^2(\frac{1}{2}-o(1))$, and has asked how sharp this lower bound is. We prove that…
Let $A_2(n,d)$ be the maximum size of a binary code of length $n$ and minimum distance $d$. In this paper we present the following new lower bounds: $A_2(18,4) \ge 5632$, $A_2(21,4) \ge 40960$, $A_2(22,4) \ge 81920$, $A_2(23,4) \ge 163840$,…
The distinguishing number of $G \leqslant \sym(\Omega)$ is the smallest size of a partition of $\Omega$ such that only the identity of $G$ fixes all the parts of the partition. Extending earlier results of Cameron, Neumann, Saxl and Seress…
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…
Let $ VG $ be a finite primitive affine permutation group, where $ V $ is a vector space of dimension $ d $ over the prime field $ \mathbb{F}_p $ and $ G $ is an irreducible linear group on $ V $. We prove that if $ p $ divides $ |G| $,…
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…
It can be shown that each permutation group $G \sqsubseteq S_n$ can be embedded, in a well defined sense, in a connected graph with $O(n+|G|)$ vertices. Some groups, however, require much fewer vertices. For instance, $S_n$ itself can be…
The goal of this paper is to study primitive groups that are contained in the union of maximal (in the symmetric group) imprimitive groups. The study of types of permutations that appear inside primitive groups goes back to the origins of…
A base of a permutation group (X,G) is a subset B of X such that its pointwise stabilizer is the trivial group. A list (x1,x2, ... ,xk) of elements of X is irredundant if each element is not in the pointwise stabilizer of its predecessors.…
A base for a finite permutation group $G \le \mathrm{Sym}(\Omega)$ is a subset of $\Omega$ with trivial pointwise stabiliser in $G$, and the base size of $G$ is the smallest size of a base for $G$. Motivated by the interest in groups of…
For a set $\Omega$ an unordered relation on $\Omega$ is a family R of subsets of $\Omega.$ If R is such a relation we let G(R) be the group of all permutations on $\Omega$ that preserves R, that is g belongs to G(R) if and only if x in R…
Motivated by recent results on the minimal base of a permutation group, we introduce a new local invariant attached to arbitrary finite groups. More precisely, a subset Delta of a finite group G is called a p-base (where p is a prime) if…