Groups of finite Morley rank with strongly embedded subgroups (Q1911784)

The paper deals with the Cherlin-Zil'ber conjecture, the central problem in the area of groups of finite Morley rank. (The state of the art has been presented in the book of \textit{A. Borovik} and \textit{A. Nesin} [Groups of finite Morley rank, Clarendon Press, Oxford (1994; Zbl 0816.20001)].) The conjecture states that any infinite simple group of finite Morley rank is an algebraic group over an algebraically closed field. The conjecture can be divided into three parts: (1) there exist no bad groups (a bad group is defined to be a nonsolvable connected group of finite Morley rank whose proper definable connected subgroups are nilpotent); (2) there exist no bad fields (a bad field is defined to be an algebraically closed field expanded by an infinite subgroup of its multiplicative group such that the expansion is of finite Morley rank); (3) any tame group is an algebraic group over an algebraically closed field (a tame group is defined to be an infinite simple group of finite Morley rank which does not have definable bad sections and in which no bad fields are interpretable). The paper is a part of Borovik's program of classification of tame groups based on ideas and concepts borrowed from finite group theory. One of such concepts is the notion of strongly embedded subgroup. A proper definable subgroup \(M\) of a group \(G\) is said to be strongly embedded if \(M\) contains involutions, and \(M\cap M^g\) does not contain involutions, for every \(g\in G\setminus M\). Finite simple groups with strongly embedded subgroups were classified by H. Bender. For an infinite simple group \(G\) of finite Morley rank, the natural conjecture is the following: if \(G\) has a strongly embedded subgroup then \(G\simeq\text{PSL}_2(K)\), where \(K\) is an algebraically closed field of characteristic 2. Here is the main result of the paper. Suppose \(G\) is an infinite simple group of finite Morley rank such that all infinite, definable, simple sections of any proper definable subgroup of \(G\) are algebraic groups over algebraically closed fields. (If the Cherlin-Zil'ber conjecture is false, a counterexample of minimal Morley rank to it satisfies this condition.) Assume that the Sylow 2-subgroups of \(G\) have infinitely many commuting involutions. Suppose \(G\) has a strongly embedded subgroup \(M\). Then \(M\) is solvable. If, in addition, \(G\) is tame, then \(G\simeq\text{PSL}_2(K)\), where \(K\) is an algebraically closed field of characteristic 2.