Related papers: Random Generation of the Special Linear Group

In this note we study sets of normal generators of finitely presented residually $p$-finite groups. We show that if an infinite, finitely presented, residually $p$-finite group $G$ is normally generated by $g_1,\dots,g_k$ with order…

We study the distribution of the Galois group of a random $q$-additive polynomial over a rational function field: For $q$ a power of a prime $p$, let $f=X^{q^n}+a_{n-1}X^{q^{n-1}}+\ldots+a_1X^q+a_0X$ be a random polynomial chosen uniformly…

We prove that if $L=\mbox{}^2F_4(2^{2n+1})'$ and $x$ is a nonidentity automorphism of $L$ then $G=\langle L,x\rangle$ has four elements conjugate to $x$ that generate $G$. This result is used to study the following conjecture about the…

We prove that $d(G) \log |G| = O(n^2 \log q)$ for irreducible subgroups $G$ of GL$(n,q)$, and estimate the associated constants. The result is motivated by attempts to bound the complexity of computing the automorphism groups of various…

It is well known that every finite simple group has a generating pair. Moreover, Guralnick and Kantor proved that every finite simple group has the stronger property, known as $\frac{3}{2}$-generation, that every nontrivial element is…

As defined by Guralnick and Saxl given a nonabelian simple group $S$ and its nonidentity automorphism $x$, a natural number $\alpha_S(x)$ does not exceed a natural number $m$ if some $m$ conjugates of $x$ in the group $\langle x,S\rangle$…

We prove that the Lie algebra $\mathfrak{sl}_n(\textbf{F}_q)$ of traceless matrices over a finite field of characteristic $p$ can be generated by $2$ elements with exceptions when $(n, p)$ is $(3, 3)$ or $(4,2)$. In the latter cases, we…

Let $G$ be a finite almost simple group. It is well known that $G$ can be generated by 3 elements, and in previous work we showed that 6 generators suffice for all maximal subgroups of $G$. In this paper we consider subgroups at the next…

We show how to count and randomly generate finitely generated subgroups of the modular group $\textsf{PSL}(2,\mathbb{Z})$ of a given isomorphism type. We also prove that almost malnormality and non-parabolicity are negligible properties for…

Let $G$ be a periodic group, and let $LCM(G)$ be the set of all $x\in G$ such that $o(x^nz)$ divides the least common multiple of $o(x^n)$ and $o(z)$ for all $z$ in $G$ and all integers $n$. In this paper, we prove that the subgroup…

We prove a result on the asymptotic proportion of randomly chosen pairs of permutations in the symmetric group $S_n$ which "invariably" generate a nonsolvable subgroup, i.e., whose cycle structures cannot possibly both occur in the same…

We show that the probability for a finitely generated subgroup of the modular group, of size $n$, to be almost malnormal or non-parabolic, tends to 0 as $n$ tends to infinity -- where the notion of the size of a subgroup is based on a…

A finite group $G$ is called *uniformly generated*, if whenever there is a (strictly ascending) chain of subgroups $1<\langle x_1\rangle<\langle x_1,x_2\rangle <\cdots<\langle x_1,x_2,\dots,x_d\rangle=G$, then $d$ is the minimal number of…

We show that if one selects uniformly independently and identically distributed matrices $A_1, \ldots, A_s \in \mathrm{SL}_2(\mathbb{Z})$ from a ball of large radius $X$ then with probability at least $1 - X^{-1 + o(1)}$ the matrices $A_1,…

Fix a finite field $K$ of order $q$ and a word $w$ in a free group $F$ on $r$ generators. A $w$-random element in $GL_N(K)$ is obtained by sampling $r$ independent uniformly random elements $g_1,\ldots,g_r\in GL_N(K)$ and evaluating…

We prove sharp limit theorems on random walks on graphs with values in finite groups. We then apply these results (together with some elementary algebraic geometry, number theory, and representation theory) to finite quotients of lattices…

Motivated by expansion in Cayley graphs, we show that there exist infinitely many groups $G$ with a nontrivial irreducible unitary representation whose average over every set of $o(\log\log|G|)$ elements of $G$ has operator norm $1 - o(1)$.…

In this paper we consider the density of maximal order elements in $\mathrm{GL}_n(q)$. Fixing any of the rank $n$ of the group, the characteristic $p$ or the degree $r$ of the extension of the underlying field $\mathbb{F}_q$ of size…

Let $R$ be the polydisc algebra or the Wiener algebra. It is shown that the group $SL_n(R)$ is generated by the subgroup of elementary matrices with all diagonal entries $1$ and at most one nonzero off-diagonal entry. The result an easy…

A new set of elementary symplectic elements is described, It is shown that these also generate the elementary symplectic group {\rm ESp}$_{2n}(R)$. These generators are more symmetrical than the usual ones, and are useful to study the…