Related papers: The popularity gap

We show that for all $n\leq X$ apart from $O(X\exp(-c(\log X)^{1/2}(\log \log X)^{1/2}))$ exceptions, the alternating group $A_n$ is invariably generated by two elements of prime order. This answers (in a quantitative form) a question of…

A subset of an abelian group is {\em sequenceable} if there is an ordering $(x_1, \ldots, x_k)$ of its elements such that the partial sums $(y_0, y_1, \ldots, y_k)$, given by $y_0 = 0$ and $y_i = \sum_{j=1}^i x_i$ for $1 \leq i \leq k$, are…

We investigate the possible structures imposed on a finite group by its possession of an automorphism sending a large fraction of the group elements to their cubes, the philosophy being that this should force the group to be, in some sense,…

In a finite group, a subset is called a Lagrange subset if its size divides the group order, and a factor if it admits a complementary subset. We provide a new and comparatively direct proof of the classification of groups in which every…

A group $G$ is said to be factorized into subsets $A_1, A_2, \ldots, A_s\subseteq G$ if every element $g$ in $G$ can be uniquely represented as $g=g_1g_2\ldots g_s$, where $g_i\in A_i$, $i=1,2,\ldots,s$. We consider the following…

A group of order $p^n$ ($p$ prime) has an indecomposable polynomial invariant of degree at least $p^{n-1}$ if and only if the group has a cyclic subgroup of index at most $p$ or it is isomorphic to one of two particular groups of small…

Suppose that an infinite set $A$ occupies at most $\frac{1}{2}(p+1)$ residue classes modulo $p$, for every sufficiently large prime $p$. The squares, or more generally the integer values of any quadratic, are an example of such a set. By…

We investigate subsets with small sumset in arbitrary abelian groups. For an abelian group $G$ and an $n$-element subset $Y \subseteq G$ we show that if $m \ll s^2/(\log n)^2$, then the number of subsets $A \subseteq Y$ with $|A| = s$ and…

In this note we provide some counterexamples for the conjecture of Moret\'{o} on finite simple groups, which says that any finite simple group $G$ can determined in terms of its order $|G|$ and the number of elements of order $p$, where $p$…

Let G be a finitely presented group, and let p be a prime. Then G is 'large' (respectively, 'p-large') if some normal subgroup with finite index (respectively, index a power of p) admits a non-abelian free quotient. This paper provides a…

Let $(G,+)$ be an abelian group and consider a subset $A \subseteq G$ with $|A|=k$. Given an ordering $(a_1, \ldots, a_k)$ of the elements of $A$, define its {\em partial sums} by $s_0 = 0$ and $s_j = \sum_{i=1}^j a_i$ for $1 \leq j \leq…

Let $A$ be a subset of the cyclic group $\mathbf{Z}/p\mathbf{Z}$ with $p$ prime. It is a well-studied problem to determine how small $|A|$ can be if there is no unique sum in $A+A$, meaning that for every two elements $a_1,a_2\in A$, there…

Consider a finite group $G$ of order $n$ with a prime divisor $p$. In this article, we establish, among other results, that if the Sylow $p$-subgroup of $G$ is neither cyclic nor generalized quaternion, then there exists a bijection $f$…

Fix $\alpha \in (0,1/3)$. We show that, from a topological point of view, almost all sets $A\subseteq \mathbb{N}$ have the property that, if $A^\prime=A$ for all but $o(n^{\alpha})$ elements, then $A^\prime$ is not a nontrivial sumset…

We study the representation growth of alternating and symmetric groups in positive characteristic and restricted representation growth for the finite groups of Lie type. We show that the the number of representations of dimension at most n…

Recent results of Qu and Tuarnauceanu describe explicitly the finite p-groups which are not elementary abelian and have the property that the number of their subgroups is maximal among p-groups of a given order. We complement these results…

Let $p$ be a prime and let $P$ be a Sylow $p$-subgroup of a finite nonabelian group $G$. Let $bcl(G)$ be the size of the largest conjugacy class of the group $G$. We show that $|P/O_p(G)| < bcl(G)$ if $G$ is not abelian.

We prove that any finite abelian group $G$ contains a collection of not too many subsets with a special structure, so that for every subset $A$ of $G$ with a small doubling, there is a member $F$ of the collection that is fully contained in…

Let $G$ be a finite group and $\alpha(G)=\frac{|C(G)|}{|G|}$\,, where $C(G)$ denotes the set of cyclic subgroups of $G$. In this short note, we prove that $\alpha(G)\leq\alpha(Z(G))$ and we describe the groups $G$ for which the equality…

Let $p$ be a fixed prime. For a finite group generated by elements of order $p$, the $p$-width is defined to be the minimal $k\in\mathbb{N}$ such that any group element can be written as a product of at most $k$ elements of order $p$. Let…