Groups covered by conjugates of proper subgroups. (Q2575691): Difference between revisions

In this paper a group \(G\) is said to be an \(\mathfrak X\)-group if whenever \(G=\bigcup_{g\in G}H^g\), for some subgroup \(H\), then it is necessarily the case that \(G=H\). Equivalently, either \(G=1\) or, in any transitive action of \(G\) on a set, at least one element of \(G\) has no fixed points. This class \(\mathfrak X\) was investigated in papers of \textit{J. Wiegold} [Arch. Math. 25, 466-469 (1974; Zbl 0298.20033) and ibid. 27, 473-475 (1976; Zbl 0372.20023)]. The class \(\mathfrak X\) is well-known to contain all finite groups and in the papers mentioned above it was shown, among other things, that all soluble groups are \(\mathfrak X\)-groups. Not all periodic locally nilpotent groups are in \(\mathfrak X\) however. The general purpose of this article is to discover conditions on the groups \(G\) and \(H\) which enable one to deduce that \(G=H\). The authors prove a number of very interesting results, both positive and negative. On the positive side, for example, they show that if \(G\) is locally finite and \(G=\bigcup_{g\in G}H^g\) for some finite subgroup \(H\) then \(G=H\). Moreover if \(G\) is any group, \(H\cong A_5\) and \(G=\bigcup_{g\in G}H^g\) then \(G=H\), leading to the possible conjecture that a similar result may hold for any finite non-Abelian simple group. This very nice paper has a wealth of ideas, leaving the reader with unsolved problems to ponder, and involving an easily stated question but with no easy answers.