Related papers: Products of normal subsets and derangements

We prove that if $G$ is a finite simple group of Lie type and $S_1,\dots, S_k$ are subsets of $G$ satisfying $\prod_{i=1}^k|S_i|\geq|G|^c$ for some $c$ depending only on the rank of $G$, then there exist elements $g_1,\dots, g_k$ such that…

A classical theorem of Jordan asserts that if a group $G$ acts transitively on a finite set of size at least $2$, then $G$ contains a derangement (a fixed-point free element). Generalisations of Jordan's theorem have been studied…

Let $G$ be a finite simple group of Lie type and let $P$ be a Sylow $2$-subgroup of $G$. In this paper, we prove that for any nontrivial element $x \in G$, there exists $g \in G$ such that $G = \langle P, x^g \rangle$. By combining this…

Let $G$ be a transitive permutation group acting on a finite set $\Omega$ with $|\Omega|\geqslant 2$. An element of $G$ is said to be a derangement if it has no fixed points on $\Omega$, and by a theorem of Jordan from 1872, $G$ always…

We conjecture that if $G$ is a finite primitive group and if $g$ is an element of $G$, then either the element $g$ has a cycle of length equal to its order, or for some $r,m$ and $k$, the group $G\leq S_m\wr S_r$, preserving a product…

We first obtain explicit upper bounds for the proportion of elements in a finite classical group G with a given characteristic polynomial. We use this to complete the proof that the proportion of elements of a finite classical group G which…

The first main result of this paper is that a finite transitive nonabelian characteristically simple subgroup of a wreath product in product action must lie in the base group of the wreath product. This allows us to characterize nonabelian…

Let $G$ be a nontrivial transitive permutation group on a finite set $\Omega$ and recall that an element of $G$ is a derangement if it has no fixed points. Derangements always exist by a classical theorem of Jordan, but there are so-called…

We characterize some classes of finite soluble groups. In particular, we prove that: a finite group $G$ is supersoluble if and only if $G$ has a normal subgroup $D$ such that $G/D$ is supersoluble and $D$ avoids every chief factor of $G$…

Let $G$ be a finite simple group. In this paper we consider the existence of small subsets $A$ of $G$ with the property that, if $y \in G$ is chosen uniformly at random, then with high probability $y$ invariably generates $G$ together with…

Let v and w be nontrivial words in two free groups. We prove that, for all sufficiently large finite non-abelian simple groups G, there exist subsets C of v(G) and D of w(G) of size such that every element of G can be realized in at least…

Let $G$ be a group and $G_0 \subseteq G$ be a subset. A sequence over $G_0$ means a finite sequence of terms from $G_0$, where the order of elements is disregarded and the repetition of elements is allowed. A product-one sequence is a…

A classical result of Baer states that a finite group $ G $ which is the product of two normal supersoluble subgroups is supersoluble if and only if $ G' $ is nilpotent. In this article we show that if $ G=AB $ is the product of…

Given a finitely generated linear group $G$ over $\mathbb{Q}$, we construct a simple group $\Gamma$ that has the same finiteness properties as $G$ and admits $G$ as a quasi-retract. As an application, we construct a simple group of type…

We say that a finite group $G$ satisfies the independence property if, for every pair of distinct elements $x$ and $y$ of $G$, either $\{x,y\}$ is contained in a minimal generating set for $G$ or one of $x$ and $y$ is a power of the other.…

Babai and S\'os have asked whether there exists a constant c>0 such that every finite group G has a product-free subset of size at least c|G|: that is, a subset X that does not contain three elements x, y and z with xy=z. In this paper we…

Given two subsets $X,Y$ of a finite group $G$, we write $\Pr(X,Y)$ for the probability that random elements $x \in X$ and $y \in Y$ commute. If $X,Y$ are subgroups, we denote by $\Pr^*(X,Y)$ the maximum real number $\epsilon$ with the…

Let $G$ be a finite group. By a sequence over $G$, we mean a finite unordered string of terms from $G$ with repetition allowed, and we say that it is a product-one sequence if its terms can be ordered so that their product is the identity…

A transitive simple subgroup of a finite symmetric group is very rarely contained in a full wreath product in product action. All such simple permutation groups are determined in this paper. This remarkable conclusion is reached after a…

Let $G$ be a finite group, written multiplicatively. The Davenport constant of $G$ is the smallest positive integer $D(G)$ such that every sequence of $G$ with $D(G)$ elements has a non-empty subsequence with product $1$. Let $D_{2n}$ be…