Local partial covering subgroups in finite groups (Q2221997)

The cover-avoidance property has played an important role in the structural study of solvable groups. A subgroup \(A\) of a finite group \(G\) is said to have the cover-avoidance property in \(G\) (a CAP-subgroup) if \(A\) covers or avoids each chief factor of \(G;\) moreover \(A\) is called a partial CAP-subgroup if there exists a chief series of \(G\) such that \(A\) covers or avoids each chief factor of the series. The author introduces a weaker property: a subgroup \(A\) is called a local partial covering subgroup if \(A^G=AB\) for a suitable maximal \(G\)-invariant subgroup \(B\) of \(A^G.\) A partial CAP-subgroup is a local partial covering subgroup, but an example is given indicating that the inverse is false. The main result in the paper is as follows. Let \(p^d\) be a prime power with \(p \leq p^d \leq \sqrt{|G|_p}\) and assume that all subgroups of \(G\) of order \(p^d\) and all cyclic subgroups of order 4 when \(p^d = 2\) and a Sylow 2-subgroup of \(G\) is nonabelian, are local partial covering subgroups. Then \(G/O_{p^\prime p}(G)\) is \(p\)-supersolvable. Furthermore, if \(G\) is not \(p\)-supersolvable, then \(O_{p^\prime p}(G)/\Phi\) is a homogeneous \(\mathbb F_p[G]\)-module where \(\Phi\) is the preimage of \(\Phi(G/O_{p^\prime}(G)\) in \(G\) and each irreducible constituent has dimension dividing \(d-\log_p |\Phi|_p.\)