Extraspecial towers and Weil representations (Q1204566)

An extraspecial tower is a finite group \(G\) with a series of normal subgroups \(G = N_ 0 > N_ 1 > N_ 2 > \dots\) such that, for each \(i\), \(N_ i/N_{i+1}\) is extraspecial and \(N_{i+1}\) is contained in the derived group of \(N_ i\). Such towers provide examples of soluble groups of arbitrarily large derived length yet transparent structure. The authors construct them inductively ``from the top down'': given \(G_ i = G/N_ i\), they choose a suitable \(E_ i = N_ i/N_{i+1}\) and then construct \(G_{i+1} = G/N_{i+1}\) as a split extension \(G_{i + 1} = G_ i \ltimes E_ i\). The Weil representations are involved in the construction, whose details are quite complicated. An interesting example arising out of the paper is an iterated split extension \[ Sp_ 2(\mathbb{F}_ 3) \ltimes E \ltimes Q^ 3 \ltimes Q^{81} \ltimes E^{2^{80}} \ltimes \dots, \] \vskip2.7mm where \(Q\), \(E\) denote respectively the quaternion group of order 8 and the nonabelian group of order 27 and exponent 3 and the powers are central (rather than direct) products.