A new solvability criterion for finite groups

Abstract

In 1968, John Thompson proved that a finite group $G$ is solvable if and only if every $2$-generator subgroup of $G$ is solvable. In this paper, we prove that solvability of a finite group $G$ is guaranteed by a seemingly weaker condition: $G$ is solvable if for all conjugacy classes $C$ and $D$ of $G$, \emph{there exist} $x\in C$ and $y\in D$ for which $\gen{x,y}$ is solvable. We also prove the following property of finite nonabelian simple groups, which is the key tool for our proof of the solvability criterion: if $G$ is a finite nonabelian simple group, then there exist two integers $a$ and $b$ which represent orders of elements in $G$ and for all elements $x,y\in G$ with $|x|=a$ and $|y|=b$, the subgroup $\gen{x,y}$ is nonsolvable.