On groups with every normal subgroup transitive or semiregular. (Q2482076)

A (finite) permutation group \(G\) is called `semiprimitive' iff every normal subgroup of \(G\) is transitive or semiregular. Clearly primitive, quasiprimitive or innately transitive permutation groups are semiprimitive, also finite Frobenius groups are semiprimitive. A transitive group \(G\) with a simple one-point-stabilizer is semiprimitive if and only if the one-point-stabilizer is not contained in a proper normal subgroup of \(G\) (Theorem 2.1). In the present paper several constructions of semiprimitive groups (also for infinite groups) are given and characterization theorems for (finite solvable) semiprimitive groups are proved. E.g. in Theorem 2.2 it is shown that a Coxeter system \((W,S)\) can be used to construct semiprimitive groups as factor groups of \(W\). If \(G\) is semiprimitive and solvable then \(G\) has a unique regular normal subgroup \(K\) -- the `kernel' of \(G\) -- such that every normal subgroup of \(G\) is contained in \(K\) or contains \(K\) (Theorem 3.1). If \(K\) is finite solvable and \(H\) acts on \(K\), then the semidirect product \(G=H\ltimes K\) has a semiprimitive action on the cosets of \(H\) in \(G\) iff \(H\) acts faithfully on every non-trivial \(H\)-invariant factor group of \(K\) (Theorem 3.2). There are further results about the normal structure of semiprimitive solvable groups and some reduction theorems allowing several constructions (Theorems 4.1, 4.2 and 4.3). Theorem 5.1 contains a classification of all solvable semiprimitive groups of degree \(n\) where \(n\) is a product of at most three primes or \(n\) is square-free. By work of \textit{P. P. Pálfy} and \textit{A. Szendrei} [in Contributions to general algebra 2, Proc. Klagenfurt Conf. 1982, 273-290 (1983; Zbl 0538.08006)] there are some motivating connections between the concept of semiprimitive groups and that of collapsing monoids in universal algebra; this aspect is discussed in the introduction and in Appendix A of the paper.