The Herzog-Schönheim conjecture for small groups and harmonic subgroups (Q2316753)

The paper is devoted to the group-theoretic generalization of the notion of the disjoint covering system of arithmetic progressions introduced originally on the set integers by \textit{P. Erdős} [``On a problem concerning congruence systems.'', Mat. Lapok, 4,122--128 (1952)]: Let \(\{G_i\}_{i=1}^s\) be subgroups of a given group \(G\), all of finite index. Suppose that we have the coset decomposition \(G=\cup_{i=1}^s g_iG_i\). \textit{M. Herzog} and \textit{J. Schönheim} [Research problem No. 9, Can. Math. Bull. 17, 150 (1974)] conjectured that in every such partition there exist \(1\leq i_1\neq i_2\leq s\) such that \(G_{i_1}\) and \(G_{i_2}\) are of equal indices in \(G\). \textit{I. Korec} and \textit{Š. Znám} [Math. Slovaca 27, 3--7 (1977; Zbl 0389.20031)] proved that it is sufficient to prove this conjecture for finite groups \(G\). The main theorem of the paper says that any group of order less than 1440 satisfies the Herzog-Schönheim Conjecture. The key ingredients of the proof of this result is a reduction based on the following notion: Given a group \(G\), an \(n\)-tuple of positive integers \((a_1, \dots, a_n)\) is called \(G\)-harmonic if there exist subgroups \(G_1 \dots, G_n\) of \(G\) and \(g_1,\dots,g_n\in G\) such that the cosets \(g_1U_1,\dots,g_nU_n\) have pairwise trivial intersection and \([G:U_i]=a_i\) for \(1\leq i\leq n\). The authors prove that if \(G\) is a group and \((a_1, \dots, a_n)\) is a \(G\)-harmonic tuple, where \(n\leq 4\), then \((a_1, \dots, a_n)\) is also \(\mathbb{Z}\)-harmonic.