Related papers: Primitive almost simple IBIS groups with sporadic …
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…
A quasi-semiregular element in a permutation group is an element that has a unique fixed point and acts semiregularly on the remaining points. Such elements were first studied in the context of automorphisms of graphs and occur naturally in…
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…
Let G be a permutation group, acting on a set \Omega of size n. A subset B of \Omega is a base for G if the pointwise stabilizer G_(B) is trivial. Let b(G) be the minimal size of a base for G. A subgroup G of Sym(n) is large base if there…
Let $G$ be a finite permutation group acting on $\Omega$. A base for $G$ is a subset $B \subseteq \Omega$ such that the pointwise stabilizer $G_{(B)}$ is the identity. The base size of $G$, denoted by $b(G)$, is the cardinality of the…
We study the base sizes of finite quasiprimitive permutation groups of twisted wreath type, which are precisely the finite permutation groups with a unique minimal normal subgroup that is also non-abelian, non-simple and regular. Every…
The prime graph of a finite group $G$ is the labelled graph $\Gamma(G)$ with vertices the prime divisors of $|G|$ and edges the pairs $\{p,q\}$ for which $G$ contains an element of order $pq$. A group $G$ is recognisable by its prime graph…
An irredundant cover of a finite group $G$ is a collection of proper subgroups whose union is $G$ and which contains no smaller subcover. We classify finite groups which possess exactly two irredundant covers, thereby initiating an answer…
We describe a straightforward construction of the pseudo-split absolutely pseudo-simple groups of minimal type with irreducible root systems of type $BC_n$; these exist only in characteristic $2$. We also give a formula for the dimensions…
Let $G$ be a nontrivial transitive permutation group on a finite set $\Omega$. An element of $G$ is said to be a derangement if it has no fixed points on $\Omega$. From the orbit counting lemma, it follows that $G$ contains a derangement,…
Let $V$ be a finite-dimensional vector space over a finite field, and suppose $G \leq \Gamma \mathrm{L}(V)$ is a group with a unique subnormal quasisimple subgroup $E(G)$ that is absolutely irreducible on $V$. A base for $G$ is a set of…
A group is boundedly simple if, for some constant N, every nontrivial conjugacy class generates the whole group in N steps. For a large class of trees, Tits proved simplicity of a canonical subgroup of the automorphism group, which is…
Let $G$ be a finite non-regular primitive permutation group on a set $\Omega$ with point stabiliser $G_{\alpha}$. Then $G$ is said to be extremely primitive if $G_{\alpha}$ acts primitively on each of its orbits in $\Omega \setminus…
Fix a positive integer $d$ and let $\Gamma_d$ be the class of finite groups without sections isomorphic to the alternating group $A_d$. The groups in $\Gamma_d$ were studied by Babai, Cameron and P\'{a}lfy in the 1980s and they determined…
In this paper we determine the irreducible projective representations of sporadic simple groups over an arbitrary algebraically closed field F, whose image contains an almost cyclic matrix of prime-power order. A matrix M is called cyclic…
v2: A few typos corrected, a few formulations improved. On $X$ projective smooth over an algebraically closed field of characteristic $p>0$, we show that irreducible stratified bundles have rank 1 if and only if the commutator $[\pi_1^{{\rm…
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…
Let $G\leqslant\mathrm{Sym}(\Omega)$ be a finite transitive permutation group with point stabiliser $H$. We say that a subgroup $K$ of $G$ is a fixer if every element of $K$ has fixed points, and we say that $K$ is large if $|K| \geqslant…
Let $G$ be a finite primitive permutation group on a set $\Omega$ with nontrivial point stabilizer $G_{\alpha}$. We say that $G$ is extremely primitive if $G_{\alpha}$ acts primitively on each of its orbits in $\Omega \setminus \{\alpha\}$.…
Let G be a finite group and cd(G) denote the set of complex irreducible character degrees of G. In this paper, we prove that if G is a finite group and H is an almost simple group whose socle is a sporadic simple group H0 such that cd(G) =…