Related papers: Finding Blocks of Imprimitivity When There is a Sm…

Boolean functions with symmetry properties are interesting from a complexity theory perspective; extensive research has shown that these functions, if nonconstant, must have high `complexity' according to various measures. In recent work of…

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…

The lower and the upper irredundance numbers of a graph $G$, denoted $ir(G)$ and $IR(G)$ respectively, are conceptually linked to domination and independence numbers and have numerous relations to other graph parameters. It is a…

Let $G$ be a permutation group on a finite set $\Omega$. The $k$-closure $G^{(k)}$ of the group $G$ is the largest subgroup of $\operatorname{Sym}(\Omega)$ having the same orbits as $G$ on the $k$-th Cartesian power $\Omega^k$ of $\Omega$.…

A transitive smooth action of a connected Lie group G on a manifold M is called almost primitive (resp. primitive) if G doesn't contain any proper subgroup (resp. any proper normal subgroup) whose induced action on M is transitive as well.…

A transitive permutation group is said to be semiprimitive if each of its normal subgroups is either semiregular or transitive.The class of semiprimitive groups properly contains primitive groups, quasiprimitive groups and innately…

Let $G$ be a flag-transitive automorphism group of a $(v,k,\lambda)$ symmetric design $\mathcal{D}$ with $k>\lambda(\lambda-2)$. O'Reilly Regueiro proved that if $G$ is point-imprimitive, then $\mathcal{D}$ has parameters…

Grover's algorithm is a quantum query algorithm solving the unstructured search problem of size $N$ using $O(\sqrt{N})$ queries. It provides a significant speed-up over any classical algorithm \cite{Gro96}. The running time of the…

The goal of this paper is to study primitive groups that are contained in the union of maximal (in the symmetric group) imprimitive groups. The study of types of permutations that appear inside primitive groups goes back to the origins of…

We study the problem of planning paths for $p$ distinguishable pebbles (robots) residing on the vertices of an $n$-vertex connected graph with $p \le n$. A pebble may move from a vertex to an adjacent one in a time step provided that it…

We answer a question of Paterson, showing that all block systems for the group generated by the round functions of a key-alternating block cipher are the translates of a linear subspace. Following up remarks of Paterson and Shamir, we…

The purpose of this note is to extend the classical Aschbacher--O'Nan--Scott theorem for finite groups to the class of countable linear groups. This relies on the analysis of primitive actions carried out in a previous paper. Unlike the…

The group testing problem consists of determining a small set of defective items from a larger set of items based on tests on groups of items, and is relevant in applications such as medical testing, communication protocols, pattern…

The minimal base size $b(G)$ for a permutation group $G$, is a widely studied topic in the permutation group theory. Z. Halasi and K. Podoski proved that $b(G)\leq 2$ for coprime linear groups. Motivated by this result and the probabilistic…

In a previous paper, we had proved that the permutation group generated by the round functions of an AES-like cipher is primitive. Here we apply the O'Nan Scott classification of primitive groups to prove that this group is the alternating…

Let G be a directed graph with n vertices and non-negative weights in its directed edges, embedded on a surface of genus g, and let f be an arbitrary face of G. We describe a randomized algorithm to preprocess the graph in O(gn log n) time…

Let $X$ be a finite set such that $|X|=n$, and let $k< n/2$. A group is $k$-homogeneous if it has only one orbit on the sets of size $k$. The aim of this paper is to prove some general results on permutation groups and then apply them to…

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 $G$ be a group acting $2$-transitively on the boundary of a locally finite tree, and exclude the situation (which is a genuine exception) where $G$ has both $\mathrm{P}\Gamma\mathrm{L}_3(4)$ and $\mathrm{P}\Gamma\mathrm{L}_3(5)$ as…

We study variable time search, a form of quantum search where queries to different items take different time. Our first result is a new quantum algorithm that performs variable time search with complexity $O(\sqrt{T}\log n)$ where…