English

Regular orbits of sporadic simple groups

Representation Theory 2019-01-03 v2 Group Theory

Abstract

Given a finite group GG and a faithful irreducible FGFG-module VV where FF has prime order, does GG have a regular orbit on VV? This problem is equivalent to determining which primitive permutation groups of affine type have a base of size 2. Let GG be a covering group of an almost simple group whose socle TT is sporadic, and let VV be a faithful irreducible FGFG-module where FF has prime order dividing G|G|. We classify the pairs (G,V)(G,V) for which GG has no regular orbit on VV, and determine the minimal base size of GG in its action on VV. To obtain this classification, for each non-trivial gG/Z(G)g\in G/Z(G), we compute the minimal number of TT-conjugates of gg generating T,g\langle T,g\rangle.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1801.04561,
  title  = {Regular orbits of sporadic simple groups},
  author = {Joanna B. Fawcett and Jürgen Müller and E. A. O'Brien and Robert A. Wilson},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1801.04561},
  year   = {2019}
}

Comments

17 pages, shortened proof plus new result (Theorem 1.3)

R2 v1 2026-06-22T23:44:42.111Z