Involutory automorphisms of locally soluble periodic groups (Q1209587)

The main theorem of this paper is as follows. Theorem: Let \(\pi\) be a set of primes containing 2 and let \(G\) be a periodic almost locally soluble group admitting an automorphism \(w\) of order 2 such that \(C_ G(w)\) satisfies min-\(\pi\). Then \(G/[G,w]\) and \([G,w]'\) satisfy min-\(\pi\). Now it is well known that a periodic group \(G\) admitting a fixed point free automorphism \(w\) of order 2 is abelian. If the fixed point free condition is weakened to the requirement that \(C_ G(w)\) belongs to some class \(\mathcal X\), one may hope that \(G\) will depart from being abelian by an amount depending somehow on \(\mathcal X\). The present theorem is a result of this type. Similar results when \(\mathcal X\) is the class of finite groups or the class of Chernikov groups had previously been obtained by the reviewer. In the course of the proof the following result is obtained. Let \(G\) be a finite group of odd order admitting an involutory automorphism \(w\) of order 2 such that \(G = [G,w]\). Suppose that \(N\) is a normal \(w\)-invariant subgroup of \(G\) and \(C_ N(w)\) has a normal Hall \(\pi\)-subgroup \(P\). Then \(P \leq O_ \pi(G)\). This strengthens a result of \textit{A. O. Asar} [Arch. Math. 36, 97-103 (1981; Zbl 0461.20008)] who proved that if \(G\) is a finite group of odd order admitting an involutory automorphism \(w\) such that \(C_ G(w)\) is nilpotent, then \([G,w]'\) is nilpotent. We obtain this by taking \(N = [G,w]'\) in the above.