Ergodic theorems for coset spaces

We study in this paper the validity of the Mean Ergodic Theorem along left Følner sequences in a countable amenable group G. Although the Weak Ergodic Theorem always holds along any left Følner sequence in G, we provide examples where the Mean Ergodic Theorem fails in quite dramatic ways. On the other hand, if G does not admit any ICC quotients, e.g., if G is virtually nilpotent, then the Mean Ergodic Theorem holds along any left Følner sequence. In the case when a unitary representation of a countable amenable group is induced from a unitary representation of a “sufficiently thin” subgroup, we show that the Mean Ergodic Theorem holds for the induced representation along any left Følner sequence. Furthermore, we show that every countable (infinite) amenable group L embeds into a countable (not necessarily amenable) group G which admits a unitary representation with the property that for any left Følner sequence (F_n) in L, there exists a sequence (s_n) in G such that the Mean (but not the Weak) Ergodic Theorem fails in a rather strong sense along the (right-translated) sequence (F_ns_n) in G. Finally, we provide examples of countable (not necessarily amenable) groups G with proper, infinite-index subgroups H, so that the Pointwise Ergodic Theorem holds for averages along any strictly increasing and nested sequence of finite subsets of the coset G/H.     

Blowing up solutions for Neumann problem with critical nonlinearity on the boundary

Let G be a transitive permutation group on a finite set of size at least 2. By a well known theorem of Fein, Kantor and Schacher, G contains a derangement of prime power order. In this paper, we study the finite primitive permutation groups with the extremal property that the order of every derangement is an r-power, for some fixed prime r. First we show that these groups are either almost simple or affine, and we determine all the almost simple groups with this property. We also prove that an affine group G has this property if and only if every two-point stabilizer is an r-group. Here the structure of G has been extensively studied in work of Guralnick and Wiegand on the multiplicative structure of Galois field extensions, and in later work of Fleischmann, Lempken and Tiep on \({r'}\)-semiregular pairs.     

Finite simple groups in which all maximal subgroups are π-closed. I

Finite simple nonabelian groups G that are not π-closed for some set of primes π but have π-closed maximal subgroups (property (*) for (G, π)) are studied. We give a list L of finite simple groups that contains any group G with the above property (for some π). It is proved that 2 ? π for any pair (G, π) with property (*) (Theorem 1). In addition, we specify for any sporadic simple group G from L all sets of primes π such that the pair (G, π) has property (*) (Theorem 2). The proof uses the author’s results on the control of prime spectra of finite simple groups.     

The structure of finite groups with weakly <Emphasis Type="Italic">c</Emphasis>-normal subgroups

For a subgroup of a finite group we introduce a new property called weakly c-normal. Suppose that G is a finite group and H is a subgroup of G. H is said to be weakly c-normal in G if there exists a subnormal subgroup K of G such that \(G=HK\) and \(H\cap K\) is s-quasinormally embedded in G. We fix in every non-cyclic Sylow subgroup P of G some subgroup D satisfying \(1<|D|<|P|\) and study the structure of G under the assumption that every subgroup H of P with \(|H|=|D|\) is weakly c-normal in G. Some recent results are generalized and unified.     

Involutions of Type G<Subscript>2</Subscript> Over Fields of Characteristic Two

We continue a study of automorphisms of order 2 of algebraic groups. In particular we look at groups of type G₂ over fields k of characteristic two. Let C be an octonion algebra over k; then Aut(C) is a group of type G₂ over k. We characterize automorphisms of order 2 and their corresponding fixed point groups for Aut(C) by establishing a connection between the structure of certain four dimensional subalgebras of C and the elements in Aut(C) that induce inner automorphisms of order 2. These automorphisms relate to certain quadratic forms which, in turn, determine the Galois cohomology of the fixed point groups of the involutions. The characteristic two case is unique because of the existence of four dimensional totally singular subalgebras. Over finite fields we show how our results coincide with known results, and we establish a classification of automorphisms of order 2 over infinite fields of characteristic two.     

On <Emphasis Type="Italic">ss</Emphasis>-quasinormal or weakly <Emphasis Type="Italic">s</Emphasis>-permutably embedded subgroups of finite groups

Suppose that G is a finite group and H is a subgroup of G. H is said to be an ss-quasinormal subgroup of G if there is a subgroup B of G such that \(G=HB\) and H permutes with every Sylow subgroup of B; H is said to be weakly s-permutably embedded in G if there are a subnormal subgroup T of G and an s-permutably embedded subgroup \(H_{se}\) of G contained in H such that \(G=HT\) and \(H\cap T\le H_{se}\). We fix in every non-cyclic Sylow subgroup P of G some subgroup D satisfying \(1<|D|<|P|\) and study the structure of G under the assumption that every subgroup H of P with \(|H|=|D|\) is either ss-quasinormal or weakly s-permutably embedded in G. Some recent results are generalized and unified.     

The Rainbow Connection Number of the Power Graph of a Finite Group

This paper studies the rainbow connection number of the power graph \(\Gamma _G\) of a finite group G. We determine the rainbow connection number of \(\Gamma _G\) if G has maximal involutions or is nilpotent, and show that the rainbow connection number of \(\Gamma _G\) is at most three if G has no maximal involutions. The rainbow connection numbers of power graphs of some nonnilpotent groups are also given.     

Thompson’s conjecture for the alternating group of degree 2<Emphasis Type="Italic">p</Emphasis> and 2<Emphasis Type="Italic">p</Emphasis>+1

For a finite group G denote by N(G) the set of conjugacy class sizes of G. In 1980s, J.G.Thompson posed the following conjecture: If L is a finite nonabelian simple group, G is a finite group with trivial center and N(G) = N(L), then G ? L. We prove this conjecture for an infinite class of simple groups. Let p be an odd prime. We show that every finite group G with the property Z(G) = 1 and N(G) = N(A _i ) is necessarily isomorphic to A _i , where i ∈ {2p, 2p + 1}.     

On the rank of compact <Emphasis Type="Italic">p</Emphasis>-adic Lie groups

The rank of a profinite group G is the basic invariant \({{\rm rk}(G):={\rm sup}\{d(H) \mid H \leq G\}}\), where H ranges over all closed subgroups of G and d(H) denotes the minimal cardinality of a topological generating set for H. A compact topological group G admits the structure of a p-adic Lie group if and only if it contains an open pro-p subgroup of finite rank. For every compact p-adic Lie group G one has rk(G) ≥ dim(G), where dim(G) denotes the dimension of G as a p-adic manifold. In this paper we consider the converse problem, bounding rk(G) in terms of dim(G). Every profinite group G of finite rank admits a maximal finite normal subgroup, its periodic radical π(G). One of our main results is the following. Let G be a compact p-adic Lie group such that π(G) = 1, and suppose that p is odd. If \(\{g \in G \mid g^{p-1}=1 \}\) is equal to {1}, then rk(G) = dim(G).     

Coleman automorphisms of holomorphs of completely reducible and almost simple groups

Let H be the holomorph of a finite group G. It is proved that every Coleman automorphism of H is inner whenever G is either completely reducible or almost simple; in particular, this is the case when G is either characteristically simple or simple. As an application, we obtain the normalizer the conjecture holds for integral group rings of holomorphs of such groups in question.     

Test elements in pro-<Emphasis Type="Italic">p</Emphasis> groups with applications in discrete groups

Let G be a group. An element g ∈ G is called a test element of G if for every endomorphism ? : G → G, ?(g) = g implies ? is an automorphism. We prove that for a finitely generated profinite group G, g ∈ G is a test element of G if and only if it is not contained in a proper retract of G. Using this result we prove that an endomorphism of a free pro-p group of finite rank which preserves an automorphic orbit of a nontrivial element must be an automorphism. We give numerous explicit examples of test elements in free pro-p groups and Demushkin groups. By relating test elements in finitely generated residually finite-p Turner groups to test elements in their pro-p completions, we provide new examples of test elements in free discrete groups and surface groups. Moreover, we prove that the set of test elements of a free discrete group of finite rank is dense in the profinite topology.     

On finite groups with prime-power order <Emphasis Type="Italic">S</Emphasis>-quasinormally embedded subgroups

A subgroup H of a finite group G is said to be S-quasinormally embedded in G if for each prime p dividing the order of H, a Sylow p-subgroup of H is also a Sylow p-subgroup of some S-quasinormal subgroup of G. In this paper we investigate the structure of finite groups that have some S-quasinormally embedded subgroups of prime-power order, and new criteria for p-nilpotency are obtained.     

Semi-lattices of bicompact <Emphasis Type="Italic">G</Emphasis>-extensions

It is shown that any semilattice of bicompact G-extensions can be realized as a semilattice for a pseudocompact phase space with an action of a discrete group. The following examples are given: lattices of bicompact G-extensions which cannot be lattices of bicompact extensions of any Tikhonov space and a pseudocompact G-space with a discrete acting group whose semilattice of bicompact G-extensions has a countable number of minimal elements.     

Nonsolvable Groups with no Prime Dividing Four Character Degrees

Given a finite group G, we say that G has property \(\mathcal P_{k}\) if every set of k distinct irreducible character degrees of G is setwise relatively prime. In this paper, we show that if G is a finite nonsolvable group satisfying \(\mathcal P_{4}, \)then G has at most 8 distinct character degrees. Combining with work of D. Benjamin on finite solvable groups, we deduce that a finite group G has at most 9 distinct character degrees if G has property \(\mathcal P_{4}\) and this bound is sharp.     

Transitivity degrees of countable groups and acylindrical hyperbolicity

We prove that every countable acylindrically hyperbolic group admits a highly transitive action with finite kernel. This theorem uniformly generalizes many previously known results and allows us to answer a question of Garion and Glassner on the existence of highly transitive faithful actions of mapping class groups. It also implies that in various geometric and algebraic settings, the transitivity degree of an infinite group can only take two values, namely 1 and ∞. Here, by transitivity degree of a group we mean the supremum of transitivity degrees of its faithful permutation representations. Further, for any countable group G admitting a highly transitive faithful action, we prove the following dichotomy: Either G contains a normal subgroup isomorphic to the infinite alternating group or G resembles a free product from the model theoretic point of view. We apply this theorem to obtain new results about universal theory and mixed identities of acylindrically hyperbolic groups. Finally, we discuss some open problems.     

The influence of <Emphasis Type="Italic">s</Emphasis>-semipermutable subgroups on the structure of finite groups

A subgroup H of a group G is called s-semipermutable in G if H is permutable with every Sylow p-subgroup of G with (p, |H|) = 1. In this paper, we use s-semipermutable subgroups to determine the structure of finite groups. Some of the previous results are generalized.     

Finite groups whose all proper subgroups are <Emphasis Type="Italic">C</Emphasis>-groups

A group G is said to be a C-group if for every divisor d of the order of G, there exists a subgroup H of G of order d such that H is normal or abnormal in G. We give a complete classification of those groups which are not C-groups but all of whose proper subgroups are C-groups.     

<Emphasis Type="Italic">X</Emphasis>-decomposable finite groups for <Emphasis Type="Italic">X</Emphasis>={1, <Emphasis Type="Italic">m</Emphasis>, <Emphasis Type="Italic">m</Emphasis> + 1, <Emphasis Type="Italic">m</Emphasis> + 2}

A normal subgroup N of a finite group G is called n-decomposable in G if N is the union of n distinct G-conjugacy classes. We study the structure of nonperfect groups in which every proper nontrivial normal subgroup is m-decomposable, m+1-decomposable, or m+2-decomposable for some positive integer m. Furthermore, we give classification for the soluble case.