English

Derangements in permutation groups with two orbits

Group Theory 2025-06-16 v1

Abstract

A classical theorem of Jordan asserts that if a group GG acts transitively on a finite set of size at least 22, then GG contains a derangement (a fixed-point free element). Generalisations of Jordan's theorem have been studied extensively, due in part to their applications in graph theory, number theory and topology. We address a generalisation conjectured recently by Ellis and Harper, which says that if GG has exactly two orbits and those orbits have equal length n2n \geq 2, then GG contains a derangement. We prove this conjecture in the case where nn is a product of two primes, and verify it computationally for n30n \leq 30.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2506.11396,
  title  = {Derangements in permutation groups with two orbits},
  author = {Melissa Lee and Tomasz Popiel and Gabriel Verret},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2506.11396},
  year   = {2025}
}
R2 v1 2026-07-01T03:15:00.592Z