On the Characterizability of the Automorphism Groups of Sporadic Simple Groups by Their Element Orders

For G a finite group, π _e (G) denotes the set of orders of elements in G. If Ω is a subset of the set of natural numbers, h(Ω) stands for the number of isomorphism classes of finite groups with the same set Ω of element orders. We say that G is k-distinguishable if h(π _e (G)) = k < ∞, otherwise G is called non-distinguishable. Usually, a 1-distinguishable group is called a characterizable group. It is shown that if M is a sporadic simple group different from M ₁₂, M ₂₂, J ₂, He, Suz, M ^c L and O′N, then Aut(M) is characterizable by its element orders. It is also proved that if M is isomorphic to M ₁₂, M ₂₂, He, Suz or O′N, then h(π _e (Aut(M))) ∈¸ {1,∞}.