The set of orders of elements in a finite group (Q1346930)

Let \(\omega(G)\) be the set of orders of elements in a finite group \(G\). It was conjectured by Praeger and Shi that for a given set \(\pi\) of positive integers, there exists 0, 1 or infinitely many mutually nonisomorphic groups \(G\) with \(\omega(G) = \pi\). In this paper this conjecture is falsified by proving: Theorem. Let \(G\) be a group with \(\omega(G) = \omega (L_ 3(5))\). Then \(G \simeq L_ 3(5)\) or \(L_ 3(5) : 2\), where the second group is the extension of \(L_ 3(5)\) by the contragredient automorphism. In the proof the author reduces the problem to the case where \(G\) is almost simple and the classification of finite simple groups can be applied.