Square-free class sizes in products of groups (Q2404942)

In the paper under review, the authors consider finite groups factorised in the form \(G=AB\) and they study the influence of the conjugacy class sizes of the factors \(A\) and \(B\) on the structure of \(G\). All the papers in this review are finite. Recall that a group \(G=AB\) is the \textit{mutually permutable product} of its products \(A\) and \(B\) whenever \(A\) permutes with all subgroups of \(B\) and \(B\) permutes with all subgroups of \(A\). The length of the conjugacy class of \(x\in G\) in \(G\) is denoted by \(|x^G|\). A \textit{\(p\)-regular} element of a group is an element of order not divisible by \(p\). The results proved in this paper include the following ones. Theorem A. Let \(p\) be a prime number and let \(P=AB\) be a \(p\)-group such that \(p^2\) does not divide \(|x^P|\) for all \(x\in A\cup B\). Then \(P'\le \Phi(P)\le \operatorname{Z}(P)\), \(P'\) is elementary abelian and \(|P'|\le p^2\). Theorem B. Let \(G=AB\) be the mutually permutable product of its subgroups \(A\) and \(B\) and let \(p\) be a prime such that \(\gcd(p-1, |G|)=1\). If \(p^2\) does not divide \(|x^G|\) for any \(p\)-regular element \(x\in A\cup B\) of prime power order, then \(G\) is soluble, \(G\) is \(p\)-nilpotent, and the Sylow \(p\)-subgroups of \(G/{\operatorname{O}_p(G)}\) are elementary abelian. Theorem C. Let \(G=AB\) be the mutually permutable product of its subgroups \(A\) and \(B\) and let \(p\) be a prime. Suppose that for every prime power order \(p\)-regular element \(x\in A\cup B\), \(|x^G|\) is not divisible by \(p^2\). If \(G\) is \(p\)-soluble, then \(G\) is \(p\)-supersoluble. Theorem D. Let \(G=AB\) be the product of its subgroups \(A\) and \(B\), and assume that \(G\) is supersoluble. Suppose that every prime power order element \(x\in A\cup B\) has square-free conjugacy class size. Then \(G'\) is abelian with elementary abelian Sylow subgroups and \(\operatorname{F}(G)'\) has Sylow \(p\)-subgroups of order at most \(p^2\) for every prime \(p\). Theorem E. Let \(G=AB\) be the mutually permutable product of its subgroups \(A\) and \(B\). Suppose that for every prime \(p\) and every prime power order \(p\)-regular element \(x\in A\cup B\), \(|x^G|\) is not divisible by \(p^2\). Then \(G\) is supersoluble and \(G/{\operatorname{F}(G)}\) has elementary abelian Sylow subgroups. Theorem F. Let \(G=AB\) be the mutually permutable product of its subgroups \(A\) and \(B\). Suppose that for every prime \(p\) and every \(p\)-regular element \(x\in A\cup B\), \(|x^G|\) is not divisible by \(p^2\). Then the order of a Sylow \(p\)-subgorup of \(G/{\operatorname{F}(G)}\) is at most \(p^2\). The authors present some examples that show the necessity of some hypotheses in their proofs and that some converses do not hold. They also show a gap in a theorem of \textit{J. Cossey} and \textit{Y. Wang} [Commun. Algebra 27, No. 9, 4347--4353 (1999; Zbl 0948.20010)] by means of an example.