arXiv subjects
Publications and source records attributed to Cai Heng Li.
Building upon previous results, a classification is given of finite $p$-groups of which subgroups of order $p$ are all fused. This completes the classification problem dated back to Higman 1963 on the so-called Suzuki $2$-groups, and confirms a conjecture of Gross proposed in 1974. As a consequence, two open problems on AT-groups and FIF-groups are solved.
A coset geometry representation of regular dessins is established, and employed to describe quotients and coverings of regular dessins and surfaces. A characterization is then given of face-quasiprimitive regular dessins as coverings of unicellular regular dessins. It shows that there are exactly three O'Nan-Scott-Praeger types of face-quasiprimitive regular dessins which are smooth coverings of unicellular regular dessins, leading to new constructions of interesting families of regular dessins. Finally, a problem of determining smooth Schur covering of simple groups is initiated by studying coverings between $\SL(2,p)$ and $\PSL(2,p)$, giving rise to interesting regular dessins like Fibonacci coverings.
A locally primitive 2-design is a 2-design admitting an automorphism group $G$ with primitive local actions. It is proved that $G$ is point-primitive, and either $G$ is an almost simple group, or $G$ acting on the points is an affine group.
A positive integer $m$ is called a Hall number if any finite group of order precisely divisible by $m$ has a Hall subgroup of order $m$. We prove that, except for the obvious examples, the three integers $12$, $24$ and $60$ are the only Hall numbers, solving a problem proposed by Jiping Zhang.
In the recent years, the generalization of the Erdős-Ko-Rado (EKR) theorem to permutation groups has been of much interest. A transitive group is said to satisfy the EKR-module property if the characteristic vector of every maximum intersecting set is a linear combination of the characteristic vectors of cosets of stabilizers of points. This generalization of the well-know permutation group version of the Erdős-Ko-Rado (EKR) theorem, was introduced by K. Meagher. In this article, we present several infinite families of permutation groups satisfying the EKR-module property, which shows that permutation groups satisfying this property are quite diverse.
A finite graph $\G$ is said to be {\em $(G,3)$-$($connected$)$ homogeneous} if every isomorphism between any two isomorphic (connected) subgraphs of order at most $3$ extends to an automorphism $g\in G$ of the graph, where $G$ is a group of automorphisms of the graph. In 1985, Cameron and Macpherson determined all finite $(G, 3)$-homogeneous graphs. In this paper, we develop a method for characterising $(G,3)$-connected homogeneous graphs. It is shown that for a finite $(G,3)$-connected homogeneous graph $\G=(V, E)$, either $G_v^{\G(v)}$ is $2$--transitive or $G_v^{\G(v)}$ is of rank $3$ and $\G$ has girth $3$, and that the class of finite $(G,3)$-connected homogeneous graphs is closed under taking normal quotients. This leads us to study graphs where $G$ is quasiprimitive on $V$. We determine the possible quasiprimitive types for $G$ in this case and give new constructions of examples for some possible types.
This is the fifth one in a series of papers classifying the factorizations of almost simple groups with nonsolvable factors. In this paper we deal with orthogonal groups of plus type.
It is well-known that a simple $G$-arc-transitive graph can be represented as a coset graph for the group $G$. This representation is extended to a construction of $G$-arc-transitive coset graphs $\Cos(G,H,J)$ with finite valency and finite edge-multiplicity, where $H, J$ are stabilisers in $G$ of a vertex and incident edge, respectively. Given a group $G=ła,z\r$ with $|z|=2$ and $|a|$ finite, the coset graph $\Cos(G,ła\r,łz\r)$ is shown, under suitable finiteness assumptions, to have exactly two different arc-transitive embeddings as a $G$-arc-transitive map $(V,E,F)$, namely, a {\it $G$-rotary} map if $|az|$ is finite, and a {\it $G$-bi-rotary} map if $|zz^a|$ is finite. The $G$-rotary map can be represented as a coset geometry for $G$, extending the notion of a coset graph. However the $G$-bi-rotary map does not have such a representation, and the face boundary cycles must be specified in addition to incidences between faces and edges. We also give a coset geometry construction of a flag-regular map $(V,E,F)$. In all of these constructions we prove that the face boundary cycles are regular cycles which are simple cycles precisely when the given group acts faithfully on $V\cup F$.
The edges surrounding a face of a map $M$ form a cycle $C$, called the boundary cycle of the face, and $C$ is often not a simple cycle. If the map $M$ is arc-transitive, then there is a cyclic subgroup of automorphisms of $M$ which leaves $C$ invariant and is bi-regular on the edges of the induced subgraph $[C]$; that is to say, $C$ is a symmetrical Euler cycle of $[C]$. In this paper we determine the family of graphs (which may have multiple edges) whose edge-sets can be sequenced to form a symmetrical Euler cycle. We first classify all graphs which have a cyclic subgroup of automorphisms acting bi-regularly on edges. We then apply this classification to obtain the graphs possessing a symmetrical Euler cycle, and therefore are the (only) candidates for the induced subgraphs of the boundary cycles of the faces of arc-transitive maps.
This is the first one in a series of papers classifying the factorizations of almost simple groups with nonsolvable factors. In this paper we deal with almost simple linear groups.
This is the fourth one in a series of papers classifying the factorizations of almost simple groups with nonsolvable factors. In this paper we deal with orthogonal groups of minus type.
Let $G$ be an irreducible imprimitive subgroup of $\operatorname{GL}_n(\mathbb{F})$, where $\mathbb{F}$ is a field. Any system of imprimitivity for $G$ can be refined to a nonrefinable system of imprimitivity, and we consider the question of when such a refinement is unique. Examples show that $G$ can have many nonrefinable systems of imprimitivity, and even the number of components is not uniquely determined. We consider the case where $G$ is the wreath product of an irreducible primitive $H \leq \operatorname{GL}_d(\mathbb{F})$ and transitive $K \leq S_k$, where $n = dk$. We show that $G$ has a unique nonrefinable system of imprimitivity, except in the following special case: $d = 1$, $n = k$ is even, $|H| = 2$, and $K$ is a transitive subgroup of $C_2 \wr S_{n/2}$. As a simple application, we prove results about inclusions between wreath product subgroups.
This is the second one in a series of papers classifying the factorizations of almost simple groups with nonsolvable factors. In this paper we deal with almost simple unitary groups.
This is the third one in a series of papers classifying the factorizations of almost simple groups with nonsolvable factors. In this paper we deal with orthogonal groups in odd dimension.
It is shown that each subgroup of odd index in an alternating group of degree at least 10 has all insoluble composition factors to be alternating. A classification is then given of 2-arc-transitive graphs of odd order admitting an alternating group or a symmetric group. This is the second of a series of papers aiming towards a classification of 2-arc-transitive graphs of odd order.
A reductive characterization of arc-transitive circulants was given independently by Kovacs in 2004 and the first author in 2005. In this paper, we give an explicit characterization of arc-transitive circulants and their automorphism groups. Based on this, we give a proof of the fact that arc-transitive circulants are all CI-digraphs.
In this paper, we study intersecting sets in primitive and quasiprimitive permutation groups. Let $G \leqslant \mathrm{Sym}(Ω)$ be a transitive permutation group, and ${S}$ an intersecting set. Previous results show that if $G$ is either 2-transitive or a Frobenius group, then $|{S}|\leqslant|G_ω|$ (for some $ω\in Ω$). Furthermore, for some 2-transitive groups, $|{S}|=|G_ω|$ if and only if ${S}$ is a coset of a stabilizer. In this paper, we prove that these statements are far from the truth for general transitive groups. In particular, we show that in the case of primitive groups, there is even no absolute constant $c$ such that $|{S}|\leqslant c|G_ω|$. In the case $G$ is a primitive permutation group isomorphic to $\mathrm{PSL(2,p)}$, we characterize the subgroups of $G$ which are intersecting sets. We also show that if $G \leqslant \mathrm{Sym}(Ω)$ is a permutation group of prime power degree, then for any intersecting set $S$, we have $|S|\leq |G_ω|$ (for some $ω\in Ω$). This proves a part of a conjecture in \cite{MRS}.
Let $G$ be a finite almost simple group with socle $G_0$. A (nontrivial) factorization of $G$ is an expression of the form $G=HK$, where the factors $H$ and $K$ are core-free subgroups. There is an extensive literature on factorizations of almost simple groups, with important applications in permutation group theory and algebraic graph theory. In a recent paper, Li and Xia describe the factorizations of almost simple groups with a solvable factor $H$. Several infinite families arise in the context of classical groups and in each case a solvable subgroup of $G_0$ containing $H \cap G_0$ is identified. Building on this earlier work, in this paper we compute a sharp lower bound on the order of a solvable factor of every almost simple group and we determine the exact factorizations with a solvable factor. As an application, we describe the finite primitive permutation groups with a nilpotent regular subgroup, extending classical results of Burnside and Schur on cyclic regular subgroups, and more recent work of Li in the abelian case.