On Beauville structures on the groups \(S_{n}\) and \(A_{n}\) (Q2268162)

A Beauville surface is a compact complex surface \(S\) satisfying the following conditions: 1) It is isogenous to a higher product, \(S\cong (C_1\times C_2)/G\), where \(C_i\) \((i=1,2)\) are curves of genera \(g_i\geq 2\), and \(G\) is a finite group acting freely on \(C_1\times C_2\) by holomorphic transformations. 2) If \(G^0<G\) denotes the subgroup consisting of the elements which preserve each of the factors, then \(G^0\) acts effectively on each curve \(C_i\) so that \(C_i/G^0\cong \mathbb{P}^1\) and \(C_i\rightarrow C_i/G^0\) ramifies over three points. A Beauville surface is said to be of mixed or unmixed type depending on \([G:G^0]=2\) or \(G=G^0\). The group \(G\) is said to admit a mixed or unmixed Beauville structure. If the Beauville structure is strongly real then the surface \(S\) is real. There exist criteria for \(G\) to admit a Beauville (a strongly real Beauville) structure in terms of generators of the group \(G\). It is conjectured: 1) all finite simple nonabelian groups except \(A_5\) admit an unmixed Beauville structure, and 2) all but finitely many finite simple groups have a strongly real Beauville structure. The paper under review deals with the symmetric and alternating groups \(S_n\) and \(A_n\). It is previously known that \(S_n\) admits an unmixed Beauville structure if and only if \(n\geq 5\), and \(A_n\) admits an unmixed Beauville structure for large \(n\). These groups do not admit mixed Beauville structures. The authors prove the following main results: \(A_n\) admits an unmixed Beauville structure if and only if \(n\geq 6\); \(A_n\) (resp. \(S_n\)) admits a strongly real unmixed Beauville structure if and only if \(n\geq 7\) (resp. \(n\geq 5\)). The proofs are first done for low orders (\(n\leq 10\)). Then, for \(n> 10\) a general procedure is given.