Pronormal subgroups of a direct product of groups. (Q1018411)

A subgroup \(U\) of a group \(G\) is `pronormal' in \(G\) if for every \(g\in G\), \(U\) is conjugate to \(U^g\) in \(\langle U,U^g\rangle\). A subgroup \(U\) of a group \(G\) is `abnormal' in \(G\) if for every \(g\in G\), \(g\in\langle U,U^g\rangle\). Examples of pronormal subgroups include normal subgroups, maximal subgroups, Sylow subgroups, and Hall subgroups of soluble groups. Injectors and projectors of finite soluble groups are also pronormal. In this paper the authors study abnormal and pronormal subgroups of a direct product \(G=A\times B\) of finite groups in which at least one of the factors is soluble in terms of the natural projections \(\pi_X\colon G\to X\) for \(X\in\{A,B\}\). For example, let \(G=A\times B\) with either \(A\) or \(B\) soluble and suppose that \(U\leq G\). Then \(U\) is abnormal in \(G\) if and only if \(\pi_X(U)\) is abnormal in \(X\) for \(X\in\{A,B\}\) and \(U=\pi_A(U)\times\pi_B(U)\) (Proposition~3.5). They also prove that if \(U\leq G=A\times B\) with one of \(A\) or \(B\) soluble, then \(U\) is pronormal in \(G\) if and only if \(\pi_X(U)\) is pronormal in \(X\) for \(X\in\{A,B\}\) and \(N_G(U)=N_A(\pi_A(U))\times N_B(\pi_B(U))\) (Proposition~4.4). They also point out that if \(U\) is a pronormal subgroup of \(G=A\times B\) with one of \(A\) or \(B\) soluble, then \(\pi_X(U)/(U\cap X)\) is Abelian for \(X\in\{A,B\}\) and, in particular, \(U\) is normal in \(\pi_A(U)\times\pi_B(U)\) (Corollary~4.5). Let \(C_X=\{x\in X\mid [x,\pi_X(U)]\leq U\cap X\}\) for \(X\in\{A,B\}\). They show that if \(U\leq G=A\times B\) with one of \(A\) or \(B\) soluble, then \(U\) is pronormal in \(G\) if and only if \(\pi_X(U)\) is pronormal in \(X\) and \(N_X(\pi_X(U))\leq C_X\) for \(X\in\{A,B\}\) (Corollary~4.7). They give a method to construct pronormal subgroups of direct products \(A\times B\) with one of the factors soluble. When both factors are soluble, there are other characterisations which use the weak Frattini argument. A subgroup \(X\) of a group \(Y\) `satisfies the weak Frattini argument' in \(Y\) if \(Y=KN_Y(X)\), whenever \(X\leq K\trianglelefteq Y\). They characterise the pronormal subgroups \(H\) of the soluble group \(G=A\times B\) as the subgroups satisfying the weak Frattini argument in \(L\) for every subgroup \(L\) such that \(H\leq L\leq G\) and \(L=\pi_A(L)\times\pi_B(L)\) (Proposition~5.5). They also obtain characterisations of pronormal subgroups as the subgroups \(H\) in which \(N_L(H)\) is abnormal in \(L\) whenever \(H\leq L\leq G\) and \(L=\pi_A(L)\times\pi_B(L)\) and as the subgroups \(H\) such that \(N_L(H)\) contains some system normaliser of \(L\) if \(H\leq L\leq G\) and \(L=\pi_A(L)\times\pi_B(L)\) (Proposition 5.11). Abnormal subgroups \(H\) of soluble products \(G=A\times B\) are characterised as subgroups containing a system normaliser of \(L\) if \(H\leq L=\pi_A(L)\times\pi_B(L)\leq G\), and the subgroups such that if \(H<L=\pi_A(L)\times\pi_B(L)\leq G\), then there exists a system normaliser \(D_L\) of \(L\) with \(\langle H,D_L\rangle <L\). The last section of the paper is devoted to the study of local pronormality. A subgroup \(U\) of a group \(G\) is `locally pronormal' in \(G\) if all Sylow subgroups of \(U\) are pronormal in \(G\). In the case of a nilpotent subgroup \(U\leq G=A\times B\) with one of \(A\) or \(B\) soluble, it turns out that \(U\) is locally pronormal in \(G\) if and only if \(U\) is pronormal in \(G\) and \(\pi_X(U)\) is locally pronormal in \(X\) for \(X\in\{A,B\}\) (Corollary~6.3).