Finite \(p\)-groups of class two with a large multiple holomorph (Q2109062)

The holomorph \(\mathrm{Hol}(G)\) of a group \(G\) can be defined as the normalizer of \(\rho(G)\) in the group \(S(G)\) of permutations of the set \(G,\) where \(\rho\) is the right regular representation. The multiple holomorph of \(G\) is defined as the normalizer \(N_{S(G)}(\mathrm{Hol}(G))\) of \(\mathrm{Hol}(G)\) in \(S(G).\) The quotient group \(T(G)\) of the multiple holomorph by the holomorph of \(G\) has been investigated for various families of groups \(G.\) Most of the examples known so far came from finite \(p\)-groups with \(p\) an odd prime and in these examples the prime factors of the order of \(T(G)\) came from \(p(p-1).\) The motivation of the paper is to construct examples of finite \(p\)-groups \(G\) such that the order of \(T(G)\) have prime factors lying outside of \(p(p-1).\) To do that, the authors consider finite \(p\)-group of class two for any odd prime \(p,\) in which case \(T(G)\) may be studied using certain bilinear forms. For any \(n \geq 4,\) they exhibit examples of groups \(G\) of order \(p^{n+\binom{n}{2}}\) such that \(T(G)\) contains a subgroup isomorphic to \(\mathrm{GL}(n,\mathbb F_p) \times\mathrm{GL}(\binom{n}{2}-n,\mathbb F_p).\)