English

Diameter of classical groups generated by transvections

Group Theory 2024-05-14 v3 Combinatorics

Abstract

Let GG be a finite classical group generated by transvections, i.e., one of SLn(q)\operatorname{SL}_n(q), SUn(q)\operatorname{SU}_n(q), Sp2n(q)\operatorname{Sp}_{2n}(q), or O2n±(q)\operatorname{O}^\pm_{2n}(q) (qq even), and let XX be a generating set for GG containing at least one transvection. Building on work of Garonzi, Halasi, and Somlai, we prove that the diameter of the Cayley graph Cay(G,X)\operatorname{Cay}(G, X) is bounded by (nlogq)C(n \log q)^C for some constant CC. This confirms Babai's conjecture on the diameter of finite simple groups in the case of generating sets containing a transvection. By combining this with a result of the author and Jezernik it follows that if GG is one of SLn(q)\operatorname{SL}_n(q), SUn(q)\operatorname{SU}_n(q), Sp2n(q)\operatorname{Sp}_{2n}(q) and XX contains three random generators then with high probability the diameter Cay(G,X)\operatorname{Cay}(G, X) is bounded by nO(logq)n^{O(\log q)}. This confirms Babai's conjecture for non-orthogonal classical simple groups over small fields and three random generators.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2308.07086,
  title  = {Diameter of classical groups generated by transvections},
  author = {Sean Eberhard},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2308.07086},
  year   = {2024}
}

Comments

39 pages. Final version

R2 v1 2026-06-28T11:55:03.692Z