Effective computation with group homomorphisms (Q1062134)

The paper mainly discusses the handling of three homomorphisms arising very naturally for permutation groups: 1. The homomorphism of an intransitive permutation group to a transitive constituent; 2. The homomorphism of an imprimitive permutation group to a group of block permutations; 3. The homomorphism of a permutation group G to the group of permutations induced by right multiplication on the right cosets of a subgroup \(U<G.\) As to be expected, Sims' techniques for computing with permutation groups (base, strong generating set, base change) are used; task 3 obviously amounts to the construction of a coset table of U in G and again uses proposals of Sims. The author has implemented these methods within the CAYLEY system of J. Cannon and it is thus the main virtue of the paper that it reports about practically working algorithms, not just about ''in principle'' possibilities of algorithmic solutions. In fact, it would have been to the benefit of the paper if more exact information about implementation and performance would have been given, while trivial retolds of most elementary group theory (e.g. permutation representation on cosets) and repetitions of well-known algorithms (e.g. base change) could have been omitted.