Extraspecial 2-groups and mod-2 cohomology lengths. (Q1421788)

Let \(G\) be a \(p\)-group which is not elementary Abelian and \(H^*(G)\) the mod-\(p\) cohomology of \(G\). The cohomology length of \(G\), denoted by \(\text{chl}(G)\), is defined to be the smallest integer \(m\) such that there exist non-zero elements \(x_1,\dots,x_m\) of \(H^1(G)\) satisfying \(x_1\cdots x_m=0\) for \(p=2\), \(\beta x_1\cdots\beta x_m=0\) for \(p>2\), with \(\beta\) the Bockstein operation. If \(G_0\) (respectively \(G_1\), \(G_2\)) is the extraspecial 2-group of real (respectively complex, quaternion) type of order \(2^{2n+3}\) (respectively \(2^{2n+2}\), \(2^{2n+1}\)) then it is shown here that \(\text{chl}(G_0)\geq\text{chl}(G_1)\geq\text{chl}(G_2)>2^n\) and \(\text{chl}(G_0)=\text{chl}(G_1)=\text{chl}(G_2)\) for \(n\leq 3\). \textit{E. Yalçin} [in J. Algebra 245, No. 1, 50-67 (2001; Zbl 1004.20030)] showed that \(\text{chl}(G_0)\) is equal to \(2^n+1\) for \(n\leq 3\) and to \(2^n+2^{n-3}\) for \(n\geq 4\). He also showed that \(s(G_1)=s(G_2)\), where \(s(G_i)\) is the minimum cardinality of a representing set of \(G_i\) and conjectured that \(\text{chl}(G_i)=s(G_i)\), \(i=1,2\). The results of the author here disprove this conjecture.