Sporadic groups, code loops and nonvanishing cohomology (Q1087636)

The aim of this article is to introduce a unified description of a certain exceptional behavior of the degree 1- and 2-cohomology of certain groups of Lie type. This work was initiated by the construction of a particular 2-local subgroup of the Fischer-Griess monster group by the automorphisms of a certain Moufang loop [\textit{J. H. Conway}, Invent. Math. 79, 513-540 (1985; Zbl 0564.20010)]. Generalizing this concept the author defines a special class of Moufang loops - code loops - which are extensions of elementary abelian 2-groups V. He shows that \(H^ 2(G,V)\neq 0\), where G lies in the automorphism group of the code loop satisfying a specific condition on involutions (for this condition see also the author's work [in Pac. J. Math. 48, 403-422 (1973; Zbl 0283.20028)]). In more detail a code loop of order 16, a subloop of the nonzero Cayley numbers, with the nonsplit extension \(2^ 3GL(3,2)\) as automorphisms is studied. Other extensions discussed with the ''loop method'' by the author are \(4^ 3GL(3,2)\) (Higman-Sims and O'Nan group), and \(2^{3+8}GL(3,2)\) (Rudvalis group).