Alternating groups as products of cycle classes - II

Abstract: Given integers

k, l g e q 2

, where either

l

is odd or

k

is even, let

n (k, l)

denote the largest integer

n

such that each element of

A_{n}

is a product of

k

many

l

-cycles. In 2008, M. Herzog, G. Kaplan and A. Lev conjectured that

l f l o o r f r a c 2 k l 3 f l o o r l e q n (k, l) l e q l f l o o r f r a c 2 k l 3 f l o o r + 1

. It is known that the conjecture holds when

k = 2, 3, 4

. Moreover, it is also true when

3 m i d l

. In this article, we determine the exact value of

n (k, l)

when

3 m i d l

and

k g e q 5

. As an immediate consequence, we get that

n (k, l) < l f l o o r f r a c 2 k l 3 f l o o r

when

k g e q 5

, which shows that the above conjecture is not true in general. In fact, the difference between the exact value of

n (k, l)

and the conjectured value grows linearly in terms of

k

. Our results also generalize the case of

k = 2, 3, 4

.

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