On control of the prime spectrum of a finite simple group

The set π(G) of all prime divisors of the order of a finite group G is often called its prime spectrum. It is proved that every finite simple nonabelian group G has sections H ₁, …, H _m of some special form such that π(H ₁)∪…∪π(H _m ) = π(G) and m ≤ 5. Moreover, m ≤ 2 if G is an alternating or classical simple group. In all cases, it is possible to choose the sections H _i so that each of them is a simple nonabelian group, a Frobenius group, or (in one case) a dihedral group. If the above equality holds for a finite group G, then we say that the set {H ₁,…,H _m } controls the prime spectrum of G. We also study some parameter c(G) of finite groups G related to the notion of control.     

Joint spectrum and the infinite dihedral group

A subgroup H of a group G is called pronormal if, for any element g ∈ G, the subgroups H and H ^g are conjugate in the subgroup <H,H ^g >. We prove that, if a group G has a normal abelian subgroup V and a subgroup H such that G = HV, then H is pronormal in G if and only if U = N _U (H)[H,U] for any H-invariant subgroup U of V. Using this fact, we prove that the simple symplectic group PSp_6n (q) with q ≡ ±3 (mod 8) contains a nonpronormal subgroup of odd index. Hence, we disprove the conjecture on the pronormality of subgroups of odd indices in finite simple groups, which was formulated in 2012 by E.P. Vdovin and D.O. Revin and verified by the authors in 2015 for many families of simple finite groups.     

Properly discontinuous group actions on affine homogeneous spaces

Let G be a real algebraic group, H ≤ G an algebraic subgroup containing a maximal reductive subgroup of G, and Γ a subgroup of G acting on G/H by left translations. We conjecture that Γ is virtually solvable provided its action on G/H is properly discontinuous and ΓG/H is compact, and we confirm this conjecture when G does not contain simple algebraic subgroups of rank ≥2. If the action of Γ on G/H (which is isomorphic to an affine linear space Aⁿ) is linear, our conjecture coincides with the Auslander conjecture. We prove the Auslander conjecture for n ≤ 5.     

On Dominions of the Rationals in Nilpotent Groups

The dominion of a subgroup H of a group G in a class M is the set of all a ∈ G that have the same images under every pair of homomorphisms, coinciding on H from G to a group in M. A group H is n-closed in M if for every group G = gr(H, a₁,..., a_n) in M that includes H and is generated modulo H by some n elements, the dominion of H in G (in M) is equal to H. We prove that the additive group of the rationals is 2-closed in every quasivariety of torsion-free nilpotent groups of class at most 3.     

On coset-spaces of compact Lie groups by subgroups of corank 2

Let G be a simple compact connected simply connected Lie group, H its connected Lie subgroup of corank 2 which coincides with the commutator group of the centralizer of a torus, and let Sam(G/H) = 0. We prove that if a compact connected simply connected Lie group G' acts transitively and locally effectively on the manifold G/H, then G' is isomorphic to G. if the root system of G consists of roots of the same length, then the action of G' on G/H is similar to the action of G.     

On an open problem of Guo-Skiba

Let G be a finite group, and let A be a proper subgroup of G. Then any chief factor H/A _G of G is called a G-boundary factor of A. For any Gboundary factor H/A _G of A, the subgroup (A ∩ H)/A _G of G/ A _G is called a G-trace of A. In this paper, we prove that G is p-soluble if and only if every maximal chain of G of length 2 contains a proper subgroup M of G such that either some G-trace of M is subnormal or every G-boundary factor of M is a p′-group. This result give a positive answer to a recent open problem of Guo and Skiba. We also give some new characterizations of p-hypercyclically embedded subgroups.     

On the intersection graph of a finite group

For a finite group G, the intersection graph of G which is denoted by Γ(G) is an undirected graph such that its vertices are all nontrivial proper subgroups of G and two distinct vertices H and K are adjacent when H ∩ K ≠ 1. In this paper we classify all finite groups whose intersection graphs are regular. Also, we find some results on the intersection graphs of simple groups and finally we study the structure of Aut(Γ(G)).     

Length-type parameters of finite groups with almost unipotent automorphisms

Let α be an automorphism of a finite group G. For a positive integer n, let E _G,n (α) be the subgroup generated by all commutators [...[[x,α],α],…,α] in the semidirect product G 〈α〉 over x ∈ G, where α is repeated n times. By Baer’s theorem, if E _G,n (α)=1, then the commutator subgroup [G,α] is nilpotent. We generalize this theorem in terms of certain length parameters of E _G,n (α). For soluble G we prove that if, for some n, the Fitting height of E _G,n (α) is equal to k, then the Fitting height of [G,α] is at most k + 1. For nonsoluble G the results are in terms of the nonsoluble length and generalized Fitting height. The generalized Fitting height h*(H) of a finite group H is the least number h such that F _h* (H) = H, where F ₀* (H) = 1, and F _i+1* (H) is the inverse image of the generalized Fitting subgroup F*(H/F _i *(H)). Let m be the number of prime factors of the order |α| counting multiplicities. It is proved that if, for some n, the generalized Fitting height E _G,n (α) of is equal to k, then the generalized Fitting height of [G,α] is bounded in terms of k and m. The nonsoluble length λ(H) of a finite group H is defined as the minimum number of nonsoluble factors in a normal series each of whose factors either is soluble or is a direct product of nonabelian simple groups. It is proved that if λE _G,n (α)= k, then the nonsoluble length of [G,α] is bounded in terms of k and m. We also state conjectures of stronger results independent of m and show that these conjectures reduce to a certain question about automorphisms of direct products of finite simple groups.     

Stability of Discontinuous Groups Acting on Homogeneous Spaces

Suppose given a nilpotent connected simply connected Lie group G, a connected Lie subgroup H of G, and a discontinuous group Γ for the homogeneous space M = G/H. In this work we study the topological stability of the parameter space R(Γ,G,H) in the case where G is three-step. We prove a stability theorem for certain particular pairs (Γ,H). We also introduce the notion of strong stability on layers making use of an explicit layering of Hom(Γ,G) and study the case of Heisenberg groups.     

Products of F*(<Emphasis Type="Italic">G</Emphasis>)-subnormal subgroups of finite groups

A subgroup H of a finite group G is called F*(G)-subnormal if H is subnormal in HF*(G). We show that if a group Gis a product of two F*(G)-subnormal quasinilpotent subgroups, then G is quasinilpotent. We also study groups G = AB, where A is a nilpotent F*(G)-subnormal subgroup and B is a F*(G)-subnormal supersoluble subgroup. Particularly, we show that such groups G are soluble.