Some finite groups with large conjugacy classes

We derive some properties of a family of finite groups, which was investigated by Camina, Macdonald, and others. For instance, we give information about the Schur multipliers of the class twop-groups in this family. A large part of this paper was written while the author was visiting the Department of Mathematics of the University of Trento. The author is indebted to this department, and in particular to C.M. Scoppola, for their kind hospitality. The author is also grateful to D. Chillag for his constructively destructive criticism of the first version of this paper.     

Remarks on the length of conjugacy classes of finite groups

Let G be a finite group. The question of how certain arithmetical conditions on the lengths of the conjugacy classes of G influence the group structure has been studied by several authors. In this paper we study restrictions on the structure of a finite group in which the lengths of conjugacy classes are not divisible by p ² for some prime p. We generalise and provide simplified proofs for some earlier results.     

Notes on the length of conjugacy classes of finite groups

The purpose of this paper is to investigate influences of lengths of conjugacy classes of finite groups on the structure of finite groups. We get a necessary and sufficient condition for a finite group G to be equal to O_p(G)×O_p^′(G). We also generalize some results (Comm. Algebra 27 (9) (1999) 4347).     

Monomiality of finite groups with some conditions on conjugacy classes

We present some arithmetical-type conditions on the set of conjugacy classes of a finite group that are sufficient for the monomiality of the group, i.e., for the property that all its irreducible complex characters are induced by linear characters of subgroups. Translated from Fundamentalnaya i Prikladnaya Matematika, Vol. 13, No. 5, pp. 201–212, 2007.     

On the number of conjugacy classes of finite nilpotent groups

We establish the first super-logarithmic lower bound for the number of conjugacy classes of a finite nilpotent group. In particular, we obtain that for any constant c there are only finitely many finite p-groups of order pm with at most c⋅m conjugacy classes. This answers a question of L. Pyber.     

Products of conjugacy classes in finite and algebraic simple groups

We prove the Arad–Herzog conjecture for various families of finite simple groups — if A$A$ and B$B$ are nontrivial conjugacy classes, then AB$AB$ is not a conjugacy class. We also prove that if G$G$ is a finite simple group of Lie type and A$A$ and B$B$ are nontrivial conjugacy classes, either both semisimple or both unipotent, then AB$AB$ is not a conjugacy class. We also prove a strong version of the Arad–Herzog conjecture for simple algebraic groups and in particular show that almost always the product of two conjugacy classes in a simple algebraic group consists of infinitely many conjugacy classes. As a consequence we obtain a complete classification of pairs of centralizers in a simple algebraic group which have dense product. A special case of this has been used by Prasad to prove a uniqueness result for Tits systems in quasi-reductive groups. Our final result is a generalization of the Baer–Suzuki theorem for p$p$-elements with p≥5$p\ge 5$.     

Classification of finite groups according to the number of conjugacy classes

We consider the problem of the classification of finite groups according to the number of conjugacy classes through the classification of all the finite groups with many minimal normal subgroups.     

Applications of a graph related to conjugacy classes in finite groups

This article was written by the authors with a during the forth author's visit to Milano and, independently.     

On a graph associated to invariant conjugacy classes of finite groups

LetA andG be finite groups of coprime orders such thatA acts by automorphisms onG. We define theA-invariant conjugacy class graph ofG to be the graph having as vertices the noncentralA-invariant conjugacy classes ofG, and two vertices are connected by an edge if their cardinalities are not coprime. We prove that when the graph is disconnected thenG is solvable.     

Classification of finite groups according to the number of conjugacy classes II

In the following,G denotes a finite group,r(G) the number of conjugacy classes ofG, β(G) the number of minimal normal subgroups ofG andα(G) the number of conjugate classes ofG not contained in the socleS(G). Let Φ _j = {G|β(G) =r(G) −j}. In this paper, the family Φ₁₁ is classified. In addition, from a simple inspection of the groups withr(G) =b conjugate classes that appear in ϒ _j ^=1/11 Φ _j , we obtain all finite groups satisfying one of the following conditions: (1)r(G) = 12; (2)r(G) = 13 andβ(G) > 1; …; (9)r(G) = 20 andβ(G) > 8; (10)r(G) =n andβ(G) =n −a with 1 ≦a ≦ 11, for each integern ≧ 21. Also, we obtain all finite groupsG with 13 ≦r(G) ≦ 20,β(G) ≦r(G) − 12, and satisfying one of the following conditions: (i) 0 ≦α(G) ≦ 4; (ii) 5 ≦α(G) ≦ 10 andS(G) solvable.     

Lower bounds for the number of conjugacy classes in finite solvable groups

We prove first that if G is a finite solvable group of derived length d ≥ 2, then k(G) > |G|^1/(2^d−1), where k(G) is the number of conjugacy classes in G. Next, a growth assumption on the sequence [G⁽ⁱ⁾: G⁽ⁱ⁺¹⁾] ₁ ^d−1 , where G⁽ⁱ⁾ is theith derived group, leads to a |G|^1/(2d−1) lower bound for k(G), from which we derive a |G|^c/log ₂log₂|G| lower bound, independent of d(G). Finally, “almost logarithmic” lower bounds are found for solvable groups with a nilpotent maximal subgroup, and for all Frobenius groups, solvable or not.     

On conjugacy classes in metaplectic groups

Let E be a finite dimensional symplectic space over a local field of characteristic zero. We show that for every element in the metaplectic double cover of the symplectic group Sp(E), and are conjugate by an element of GSp(E) with similitude −1.     

Finite groups with small conjugacy classes

We study finite groups G in which the number of distinct prime divisors of the length of the conjugacy classes is at most three. In particular we prove, under this condition, a conjecture of B. Huppert on the number of prime divisors of ÷G/Z(G)÷.