Carter subgroups in finite groups (Q1858182)

A Carter subgroup of a finite group is a self-normalizing nilpotent subgroup. Carter proved that in a soluble group such subgroups always exist, and all such subgroups are conjugate. In general, such subgroups need not exist, but it is conjectured that when they do exist, they are all conjugate. In order to prove this conjecture, it suffices to prove it for almost simple groups, i.e. groups \(A\) satisfying \(K\leq A\leq\Aut(K)\) for some simple group \(K\). We may further restrict to the case when \(A/K\) is nilpotent. The paper under review proves many of these base cases, including all simple groups except some of the unitary groups. The strategy of the proof is to show that most elements in finite simple groups are conjugate to some non-trivial power of themselves, and hence cannot lie in the centre of a Carter subgroup.