On \(p\)-groups of Frobenius type (Q1176760)

In 1978 [Isr. J. Math. 31, 153-160 (1978; Zbl 0654.20019)] the reviewer introduced a class of groups which is the theme of this paper. A group \(G\) was said to be of Frobenius type if it contained a normal subgroup \(K\) such that \(\forall x\not\in K\) the coset \(Kx\) is a subset of a conjugacy class of \(G\). Amongst groups with this property are Frobenius groups and extraspecial \(p\)-groups. A number of people have studied these groups and this paper contains a list of the relevant papers. This paper is concerned with the \(p\)-groups in this class. In this case the subgroup \(K\) appears as a term in every central series of \(G\) [\textit{I. D. MacDonald}, ibid. 40, 350-364 (1981; Zbl 0486.20016)]. A key unsolved question is whether or not there is a bound to the nilpotency class of Frobenius type \(p\)-groups. The main results in this paper concern the case when the subgroup \(K\) is the derived subgroup of \(G\). Let us consider such a \(p\)-group with \(p\) odd and let \([G:G^{\prime}] = p^{2n}\), \([G^{\prime}:G_ 3] = p^ n\), \([G_ 3:G_ 4] = p^ r\) where \(r\leqq n\) and \(G_ t\) are terms of the lower central series. These relationships between the indices are known, [\textit{I. D. MacDonald}, loc. cit. and ibid. 56, 335-344 (1986; Zbl 0618.20015)]. Two of the main results say that if \(G\) has nilpotency class 4 then \(r = n\), \(Z(G) = G_ 4\) and \(G/G_ 3\) is isomorphic to a Sylow \(p\)-subgroup of \(\text{SL}(3,p^ n)\). They give examples which are due to R. Dark. They then go on to consider the class 5 groups and use their results to obtain the Corollary that when \(K = G^{\prime}\) then \([G^{\prime}: G_ 3] = G_ 5\).