On the influence of the fixed points of an automorphism to the structure of a group (Q2222008)

The celebrated Thompson theorem claims that a finite group \(G\) admittig a fixed point free automorphism \(\alpha\) of prime order is always nilpotent. The assumption of this theorem easily leads that the order of \(\alpha\) must be coprime to \(|G|\). This paper aims to expand Thompson's theorem by addressing the case in which \(\mathbf{C}_G(\alpha)\) satisfies certain conditions, where \(\alpha\) is a coprime automorphism of prime order of \(G\), so as to get the existence of a normal Sylow subgroup or a normal \(p\)-complement in \(G\). The first result establishes that if a prime \(p\) does not divide the order of \(\mathbf{C}_G(\alpha)\), then \(G\) has a normal \(p\)-complement if and only if \(\mathbf{C}_{\mathbf{N}_G(P)}(\alpha)\) centralizes \(P\), where \(P\) is an \(\alpha\)-invariant Sylow \(p\)-subgroup of \(G\). For odd primes, this result can be obtained by means of a previous theorem by \textit{P. Flavell} [J. Algebra 300, No. 2, 472--479 (2006; Zbl 1112.20019)]. However, the author does not appeal to it but contributes a novel proof, which includes the case \(p=2\). Another result in the paper is that if \(G\) is \(\mathrm{Sz}(2^r)\) and \(\mathrm{PSL}(2,2^r)\)-free where \(r\) is the order of \(\alpha\), then \(G\) has a normal Sylow \(p\)-subgroup \(P\) if and only if \(\mathbf{C}_G(\alpha)\) normalizes \(P\). Furthermore, in the course of the work the author also obtains an interesting generalization of the Frobenius criterion for \(p\)-nilpotency under the coprime action setting. The proofs of the results depend on the classification of finite simple groups