arXiv subjects
Publications and source records attributed to Pablo Spiga.
We show that the permutation module over $\mathbb{C}$ afforded by the action of $Sp_{2m}(2^f)$ on its natural module is isomorphic to the permutation module over $\mathbb{C}$ afforded by the action of $Sp_{2m}(2^f)$ on the union of the right cosets of $O_{2m}^+(2^f)$ and $O_{2m}^-(2^f)$.
Let G be a finite non-abelian simple group and let p be a prime. We classify all pairs (G,p) such that the sum of the complex irreducible character degrees of G is greater than the index of a Sylow p-subgroup of G. Our classification includes all groups of Lie type in defining characteristic p (because every Gelfand-Graev character of G is multiplicity free and has degree equal to the above index), and a handful of well-described examples.
We give an exact formula, as a function of m and q, for the maximum order of the elements of the finite symplectic group Sp(2m,q), with q even, and of its automorphism group.
The normal covering number $γ(G)$ of a finite, non-cyclic group $G$ is the least number of proper subgroups such that each element of $G$ lies in some conjugate of one of these subgroups. We prove that there is a positive constant $c$ such that, for $G$ a symmetric group $\Sym(n)$ or an alternating group $\Alt(n)$, $γ(G)\geq cn$. This improves results of the first two authors who had earlier proved that $aφ(n)\leqγ(G)\leq 2n/3,$ for some positive constant $a$, where $φ$ is the Euler totient function. Bounds are also obtained for the maximum size $κ(G)$ of a set $X$ of conjugacy classes of $G=\Sym(n)$ or $\Alt(n)$ such that any pair of elements from distinct classes in $X$ generates $G$, namely $cn\leq κ(G)\leq 2n/3$.
We determine upper bounds for the maximum order of an element of a finite almost simple group with socle T in terms of the minimum index m(T) of a maximal subgroup of T: for T not an alternating group we prove that, with finitely many exceptions, the maximum element order is at most m(T). Moreover, apart from an explicit list of groups, the bound can be reduced to m(T)/4. These results are applied to determine all primitive permutation groups on a set of size n that contain permutations of order greater than or equal to n/4.
In this paper, we prove that the maximal order of a semiregular element in the automorphism group of a cubic vertex-transitive graph X does not tend to infinity as the number of vertices of X tends to infinity. This gives a solution (in the negative) to a conjecture of Peter Cameron, John Sheehan and the author. However, with an application of the positive solution of the restricted Burnside problem, we show that this conjecture holds true when X is either a Cayley graph or an arc-transitive graph.
Let $Γ$ be a finite connected $G$-vertex-transitive graph and let $v$ be a vertex of $Γ$. If the permutation group induced by the action of the vertex-stabiliser $G_v$ on the neighbourhood $Γ(v)$ is permutation isomorphic to $L$, then $(Γ,G)$ is said to be locally-$L$. A permutation group $L$ is graph-restrictive if there exists a constant $c(L)$ such that, for every locally-$L$ pair $(Γ,G)$ and a vertex $v$ of $Γ$, the inequality $|G_v|\leq c(L)$ holds. We show that an intransitive group is graph-restrictive if and only if it is semiregular.
Let $G$ be a group and let $S$ be an inverse-closed and identity-free generating set of $G$. The \emph{Cayley graph} $\Cay(G,S)$ has vertex-set $G$ and two vertices $u$ and $v$ are adjacent if and only if $uv^{-1}\in S$. Let $CAY_d(n)$ be the number of isomorphism classes of $d$-valent Cayley graphs of order at most $n$. We show that $\log(CAY_d(n))\inΘ(d(\log n)^2)$, as $n\to\infty$. We also obtain some stronger results in the case $d=3$.
Let $Γ$ be a connected $G$-arc-transitive graph, let $uv$ be an arc of $Γ$ and let $L$ be the permutation group induced by the action of the vertex-stabiliser $G_v$ on the neighbourhood $Γ(v)$. We study the problem of bounding $|G_{uv}|$ in terms of $L$ and the order of $Γ$.
In this paper we are concerned with the conjecture that, for any set of generators S of the symmetric group of degree n, the word length in terms of S of every permutation is bounded above by a polynomial of n. We prove this conjecture for sets of generators containing a permutation fixing at least 37% of the points.
The subdegrees of a transitive permutation group are the orbit lengths of a point stabilizer. For a finite primitive permutation group which is not cyclic of prime order, the largest subdegree shares a non-trivial common factor with each non-trivial subdegree. On the other hand it is possible for non-trivial subdegrees of primitive groups to be coprime, a famous example being the rank 5 action of the small Janko group on 266 points which has subdegrees of lengths 11 and 12. We prove that, for every finite primitive group, the maximal size of a set of pairwise coprime non-trivial subdegrees is at most 2.
We find a sufficient condition to establish that certain abelian groups are not CI-groups with respect to ternary relational structures, and then show that the groups $\Z_3\times\Z_2^2$, $\Z_7\times\Z_2^3$, and $\Z_5\times\Z_2^4$ satisfy this condition. Then we completely determine which groups $\Z_2^3\times\Z_p$, $p$ a prime, are CI-groups with respect to binary and ternary relational structures. Finally, we show that $\Z_2^5$ is not a CI-group with respect to ternary relational structures.
A k-composition of n is a sequence of length k of positive integers summing up to n. In this paper, we investigate the number of k-compositions of n satisfying two natural coprimality conditions. Namely, we first give an exact asymptotic formula for the number of k-compositions having the first summand coprime to the others. Then, we estimate the number of k-compositions whose summands are all pairwise coprime.
A graph is called cubic and tetravalent if all of its vertices have valency 3 and 4, respectively. It is called vertex-transitive and arc-transitive if its automorphism group acts transitively on its vertex-set and on its arc- set, respectively. In this paper, we combine some new theoretical results with computer calculations to construct all cubic vertex-transitive graphs of order at most 1280. In the process, we also construct all tetravalent arc-transitive graphs of order at most 640.
In this paper we answer a question of Gabriel Navarro about orbit sizes of a finite linear group H acting completely reducibly on a vector space V: if the orbits containing the vectors a and b have coprime lengths m and n, we prove that the orbit containing a+b has length mn. Such groups H are always reducible if n and m are greater than 1. In fact, if H is an irreducible linear group, we show that, for every pair of non-zero vectors, their orbit lengths have a non-trivial common factor. In the more general context of finite primitive permutation groups G, we show that coprime non-identity subdegrees are possible if and only if G is of O'Nan-Scott type AS, PA or TW. In a forthcoming paper we will show that, for a finite primitive permutation group, a set of pairwise coprime subdegrees has size at most 2. Finally, as an application of our results, we prove that a field has at most 2 finite extensions of pairwise coprime indices with the same normal closure.
We show that if G is a group of automorphisms of a thick finite generalised quadrangle Q acting primitively on both the points and lines of Q, then G is almost simple. Moreover, if G is also flag-transitive then G is of Lie type.
In this paper we study $G$-arc-transitive graphs $Δ$ where the permutation group $G_x^{Δ(x)}$ induced by the stabiliser $G_x$ of the vertex $x$ on the neighbourhood $Δ(x)$ satisfies the two conditions given in the introduction. We show that for such a $G$-arc-transitive graph $Δ$, if $(x,y)$ is an arc of $Δ$, then the subgroup $G_{x,y}^{[1]}$ of $G$ fixing pointwise $Δ(x)$ and $Δ(y)$ is a $p$-group for some prime $p$. Next we prove that every $G$-locally primitive (respectively quasiprimitive, semiprimitive) graph satisfies our two local hypotheses. Thus this provides a new Thompson-Wielandt-like theorem for a very large class of arc-transitive graphs. Furthermore, we give various families of $G$-arc-transitive graphs where our two local conditions do not apply and where $G_{x,y}^{[1]}$ has arbitrarily large composition factors.
In this paper we discuss a method for bounding the size of the stabiliser of a vertex in a $G$-vertex-transitive graph $Γ$. In the main result the group $G$ is quasiprimitive or biquasiprimitive on the vertices of $Γ$, and we obtain a genuine reduction to the case where $G$ is a nonabelian simple group. Using normal quotient techniques developed by the first author, the main theorem applies to general $G$-vertex-transitive graphs which are $G$-locally primitive (respectively, $G$-locally quasiprimitive), that is, the stabiliser $G_α$ of a vertex $α$ acts primitively (respectively quasiprimitively) on the set of vertices adjacent to $α$. We discuss how our results may be used to investigate conjectures by Richard Weiss (in 1978) and the first author (in 1998) that the order of $G_α$ is bounded above by some function depending only on the valency of $Γ$, when $Γ$ is $G$-locally primitive or $G$-locally quasiprimitive, respectively.