OD-characterization of almost simple groups related to \(U_3(5)\). (Q2266876)

Let \(G\) be a finite group and \(\pi(G)\) be the set of all distinct primes dividing the order of \(G\). The prime graph of \(G\) which is denoted by \(\Gamma(G)\) is a graph with vertex set \(\pi(G)\) and two distinct vertices \(p\) and \(q\) are joined by an edge, and we will write \(p\sim q\), if \(G\) has an element of order \(pq\). For a vertex \(p\) of \(\Gamma(G)\) the degree of \(p\), denoted by \(\deg(p)\) is defined by \(\deg(p)=|\{q\in\pi(G)\mid p\sim q\}|\). If \(|G|=p_1^{\alpha_1}\cdots p_k^{\alpha_k}\) is the prime factorization of \(|G|\) with \(\alpha_i>0\), and \(p_1<p_2<\cdots<p_k\), then \(D(G)=(\deg(p_1),\dots,\deg(p_k))\) is called the degree pattern of \(G\). A group \(M\) is called \(k\)-fold OD-characterizable if there exist exactly \(k\) non-isomorphic groups \(G\) such that \(|G|=|M|\) and \(D(G)=D(M)\). In particular a \(1\)-fold OD-characterizable group is called OD-characterizable. In the paper under review the authors consider the simple group \(L=U_3(5)\) whose full outer automorphism group is isomorphic to \(S_3\) and prove that the groups \(L\) and \(L.2\) are OD-characterizable while \(L.3\) is \(3\)-fold OD-characterizable and \(L.S_3\) is \(6\)-fold OD-characterizable.