Conjugacy class sizes in arithmetic progression (Q2208325): Difference between revisions

The reviewer wishes to report here, in loving memory of his beloved friend Carlo Casolo, the beginning of the paper [\textit{M. Bianchi} et al., Rend. Semin. Mat. Univ. Padova 106, 255--260 (2001; Zbl 1146.20305)]: ``Let \(G\) be a finite group and let \[ 1=k_{0} < k_{1} < \dots < k_{r} \] be all the distinct sizes of its conjugacy classes. The arithmetical nature of this sequence is far from being arbitrary, and clearly it has to enjoy rather special, if not yet understood, properties. Often, imposing hypotheses on the sequence, or just on some of its members, yields strong restrictions on the structure of the group \(G\).'' Define \(\mathtt{cs}(G)=\{1,k_{1}, \ldots, k_{r}\}\) and \(\mathtt{cs}^{\ast}(G)=\mathtt{cs}(G) \setminus \{1\}\). The purpose of the article under review is threefold. (1) It provides a classification of finite groups \(G\) for which \(\mathtt{cs}(G)\) is an arithmetic progression, \(r \geq 2\). (2) It completely describes finite groups \(G\) such that \(\mathtt{cs}^{\ast}(G)=\{2,4,6\}\). (3) It refines some results obtained in the aforementioned paper by Bianchi et al. (the first author of the article under review) [loc. cit.] and [\textit{S. Dolfi} and the reviewer, Bull. Lond. Math. Soc. 41, No. 5, 916--926 (2009; Zbl 1188.20021)].