The exterior degree of a pair of finite groups. (Q358223): Difference between revisions

Let \(G\) be a finite group with a normal subgroup \(N\). We may form the nonabelian exterior product \(G\wedge N\) in the sense of \textit{R. Brown, D. L. Johnson} and \textit{E. F. Robertson} [J. Algebra 111, 177-202 (1987; Zbl 0626.20038)] and define the ratio \[ d^\wedge(G,N)=\frac{|\{(g,n)\in G\times N\mid g\wedge n=1\}|}{|G||N|}, \] that is, the probability of finding in \(G\wedge N\) two elements \(g\in G\) and \(n\in N\) that commute with respect to the operator \(\wedge\). This is the so called ``exterior degree of the pair \((G,N)\)'', or, ``relative exterior degree of \(G\) and \(N\)'', overlapping the terminology in [\textit{A. Erfanian, R. Rezaei} and \textit{P. Lescot}, Commun. Algebra 35, No. 12, 4183-4197 (2007; Zbl 1152.20023)], where a corresponding notion is introduced when the condition \(g\wedge n=1\) is replaced by the commutator condition \([g,n]=1\). In particular, when \(N=G\), \(d^\wedge(G,G)=d^\wedge(G)\) is the ``exterior degree'' in [\textit{P. Niroomand} and \textit{R. Rezaei}, Commun. Algebra 39, No. 1, 335-343 (2011; Zbl 1227.20044)]. Theorems 2.6, 2.7, 2.10, 2.11 and 2.13 of the paper under review show that it is possible to generalise the special situations, described in the last cited paper. The main idea, behind all these interesting results, is to find a measure of how far is \(G\) from being capable, that is, \(G\simeq H/Z(H)\) for a prescribed group \(H\) with center \(Z(H)\). This problem arouses interest in several areas of finite group theory and algebraic topology.