Isomorphism testing of groups of cube-free order

Abstract

A group $G$ has cube-free order if no prime to the third power divides $|G|$. We describe an algorithm that given two cube-free groups $G$ and $H$ of known order, decides whether $G\cong H$, and, if so, constructs an isomorphism $G\to H$. If the groups are input as permutation groups, then our algorithm runs in time polynomial in the input size, improving on the previous super-polynomial bound. An implementation of our algorithm is provided for the computer algebra system {\sf GAP}.