Bases of primitive linear groups. II. (Q2253013)

Let \(V\) be a finite vector space, and \(H\) a subgroup of \(\text{GL}(V)\). A base for \(H\) is a subset of \(V\) whose pointwise stabilizer in \(H\) is trivial. Denote by \(b(H)\) the minimal size of a base for \(H\). Theorem 1 of part I of the paper [the authors, J. Algebra 252, No. 1, 95-113 (2002; Zbl 1034.20001)] gives an upper bound for \(b(H)\) in the case where \(H\) acts irreducibly and primitively on \(V\). The proof of this theorem relied on Theorem 2 of that paper, a result which gives the structure of primitive linear groups of unbounded base size. Unfortunately this theorem is not correctly stated: the tensor product in part (i) of the conclusion is supposed to be defined over the prime field \(F_p\), but this is not possible in general, as a tensor decomposition of a vector space over an extension of \(F_p\) does not yield a tensor decomposition over \(F_p\). In the given paper, the authors prove a corrected and improved version of this Theorem 2. This confirms a well-known conjecture of \textit{L. Pyber} [DIMACS, Ser. Discrete Math. Theor. Comput. Sci. 11, 197-219 (1993; Zbl 0799.20005)] on base sizes of primitive permutation groups in the case of affine groups whose associated linear group is primitive.