Related papers: Products of involutions in the stable general line…

We prove that every automorphism of an infinite-dimensional vector space over a field is the product of four involutions, a result that is optimal in the general case. We also characterize the automorphisms that are the product of three…

Let $s$ be an $n$-dimensional symplectic form over an arbitrary field with characteristic not $2$, with $n>2$. The simplicity of the group $\mathrm{Sp}(s)/\{\pm \mathrm{id}\}$ and the existence of a non-trivial involution in…

A classical theorem of Wonenburger, Djokovic, Hoffmann and Paige states that an element of the general linear group of a finite-dimensional vector space is the product of two involutions if and only if it is similar to its inverse. We give…

Let $s$ be an $n$-dimensional symplectic form over a field $\mathbb{F}$ of characteristic other than $2$, with $n>2$. In a previous article, we have proved that if $\mathbb{F}$ is infinite then every element of the symplectic group…

Let $G$ be a finite non-abelian simple group, $C$ a non-identity conjugacy class of $G$, and $\Gamma_C$ the Cayley graph of $G$ based on $C \cup C^{-1}$. Our main result shows that in any such graph, there is an involution at bounded…

A complex matrix is called \emph{coninvolutory} if $T\overline{T}=I$. In this paper, we study decompositions of affine transformations in $\mathrm{Aff}(n,\mathbb{C})=\mathrm{GL}(n,\mathbb{C})\ltimes \mathbb{C}^n$ into products of…

An element of the algebra $M_n(\mathbb{F})$ of $n \times n$ matrices over a field $\mathbb{F}$ is called an involution if its square equals the identity matrix. Gustafson, Halmos, and Radjavi proved that any product of involutions in…

We prove a general homological stability theorem for certain families of groups equipped with product maps, followed by two theorems of a new kind that give information about the last two homology groups outside the stable range. (These…

We prove an algebraic decomposition theorem for the unit group $\mathrm{GL}(R)$ of an arbitrary non-discrete irreducible, continuous ring $R$ (in von Neumann's sense), which entails that every element of $\mathrm{GL}(R)$ is both a product…

We prove two results. (1) There is an absolute constant $D$ such that for any finite quasisimple group $S$, given 2D arbitrary automorphisms of $S$, every element of $S$ is equal to a product of $D$ `twisted commutators' defined by the…

We complete the classification of the finite special linear groups $\SL_n(q)$ which are $(2,3)$-generated, i.e., which are generated by an involution and an element of order $3$. This also gives the classification of the finite simple…

We study the problem of determining, for a polynomial function $f$ on a vector space $V$, the linear transformations $g$ of $V$ such that $f g = f$. In case $f$ is invariant under a simple algebraic group $G$ acting irreducibly on $V$, we…

We study several combinatorial properties of finite groups that are related to the notions of sequenceability, R-sequenceability, and harmonious sequences. In particular, we show that in every abelian group $G$ with a unique involution…

We develop a comprehensive theory of the stable representation categories of several sequences of groups, including the classical and symmetric groups, and their relation to the unstable categories. An important component of this theory is…

A finitely generated group $G$ is said to be condensed if its isomorphism class in the space of finitely generated marked groups has no isolated points. We prove that every product variety $\mathcal{UV}$, where $\mathcal{U}$ (respectively,…

When does the complex product of a given number of subsets of a group generate the same subgroup as their union? We answer this question in a more general form by introducing HS-stability and characterising the HS-stable involution…

We classify bireflectional elements (products of 2 involutions) in symplectic groups Sp$(2n, K)$ over a field $K$. We also classify rev ersible elements (elements conjugate to their inverses) and bireflectional elements in finite projective…

A map is given showing that convolutions of independent random variables over a finite group and matrix multiplications of doubly stochastic matrices are homomorphic. As an application, a short proof is given to the theorem that the…

Let $G\subset\GL(\BC^r)$ be a finite complex reflection group. We show that when $G$ is irreducible, apart from the exception $G=\Sgot_6$, as well as for a large class of non-irreducible groups, any automorphism of $G$ is the product of a…

Let $G$ be a connected reductive $p$-adic group and let $\theta$ be an automorphism of $G$ of order at most two. Suppose $\pi$ is an irreducible smooth representation of $G$ that is taken to its dual by $\theta$. The space $V$ of $\pi$ then…