Related papers: Spreading primitive groups of diagonal type do not…

A sharply 2-transitive permutation group of characteristic 0 whose point stabiliser has an abelian subgroup of finite index splits. More generally, a near-domain of characteristic 0 with a multiplicative subgroup of finite index avoiding…

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…

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…

We construct here the first known examples of non-split sharply 2-transitive groups of bounded exponent in odd positive characteristic for every large enough prime $p \equiv 3 \pmod{4}$. In fact, we show that there are countably many…

We discuss recent progress on the problem of classifying point-primitive generalised polygons. In the case of generalised hexagons and generalised octagons, this has reduced the problem to primitive actions of almost simple groups of Lie…

General bounds are presented for the diameters of orbital graphs of finite affine primitive permutation groups. For example, it is proved that the orbital diameter of a finite affine primitive permutation group with a nontrivial point…

The operation of switching a graph $\Gamma$ with respect to a subset $X$ of the vertex set interchanges edges and non-edges between $X$ and its complement, leaving the rest of the graph unchanged. This is an equivalence relation on the set…

In this note we prove the non-existence of two types of partial difference sets in Abelian groups of order 216. This finalizes the classification of parameters for which a partial difference set of size at most 100 exists in an Abelian…

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…

The number of fixed points of a random permutation of 1,2,...,n has a limiting Poisson distribution. We seek a generalization, looking at other actions of the symmetric group. Restricting attention to primitive actions, a complete…

For finite classical groups acting naturally on the set of points of their ambient polar spaces, the symmetry properties of \emph{synchronising} and \emph{separating} are equivalent to natural and well-studied problems on the existence of…

This paper contains the more significant part of the article with the same title that will appear in the Volume 12 of Journal of Group Theory (2009). In this paper we determine all algebraic transformation groups $G$, defined over an…

In this paper we examine embeddings of alternating groups and symmetric groups into almost simple groups of exceptional type. In particular, we prove that unless the alternating or symmetric group has degree 6 or 7, there is no maximal…

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…

In \cite{striker2018rowmotion} Striker generalized Cameron and Fon-Der-Flaass's notion of a toggle group. In this paper we begin the study of transitive generalized toggle groups that contain a cycle. We first show that if such a group has…

In this paper, we shall show that the only primitive Schur ring over a semi dihedral group is the trivial one and every semi dihedral subgroup is Burnside group, that is a primitive group containing a regular subgroup isomorphic to the semi…

Motivated by questions arising in connection with branched coverings of connected smooth projective curves over finite fields, we study the proportion of fixed point free elements (derangements) in cosets of normal subgroups of primitive…

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 $\Omega \setminus \{\alpha\}$.…

The finite sharply $2$-transitive groups were classified by Zassenhaus in the 1930's. They essentially all look like the group of affine linear transformations $x\mapsto ax+b$ for some field (or at least near-field) $K$. However, the…

A sharply 2-transitive permutation group of finite Morley rank and characteristic 2 splits; a split sharply 2-transitive permutation group of finite Morley rank and characteristic different from 2 is the group of affine transformations of…