On the multiple holomorph of a finite almost simple group (Q2329083)

Let \(G\) be a group, and \(\operatorname{Perm}(G)\) be the group of permutations of the underlying set \(G\). Let \(\rho : G \to \operatorname{Perm}(G)\) be the right regular representation, mapping \(g \mapsto (x \mapsto x g)\). It is well known that the (permutational) holomorph \(\operatorname{Hol}(G)\) of \(G\), that is, the normaliser \(N_{\operatorname{Perm}(G)}(\rho(G))\), is isomorphic to the (abstract) holomorph \(\operatorname{Aut}(G) G\) of \(G\). \par The multiple holomorph \(\operatorname{NHol}(G) = N_{\operatorname{Perm}(G)}(\operatorname{Hol}(G))\) acts transitively on the set \(\mathcal{H}_{0}(G)\) of the regular subgroups \(R\) of \(\operatorname{Hol}(G)\) which are isomorphic to \(G\) and such that \(N_{\operatorname{Perm}(G)}(R) = \operatorname{Hol}(G)\), so that the quotient \(T(G) = \operatorname{NHol}(G)/\operatorname{Hol}(G)\) acts regularly on \(\mathcal{H}_{0}(G)\). The study of \(T(G)\) has been revived in recent years by \textit{T. Kohl} [Commun. Algebra 43, No. 10, 4290--4304 (2015; Zbl 1342.20001)]. Let \(\mathcal{H}_{1}(G)\) be the set of the regular subgroup \(R \trianglelefteq \operatorname{Hol}(G)\), and \(\mathcal{H}_{2}(G)\) be the set of the regular subgroup \(R \le \operatorname{Hol}(G)\) which are isomorphic to \(G\). Clearly \(\mathcal{H}_{0}(G) \subseteq \mathcal{H}_{1}(G) \cap \mathcal{H}_{2}(G)\). \textit{S. Carnahan} and \textit{L. Childs} have proved in [J. Algebra 218, No. 1, 81--92 (1999; Zbl 0988.12003)] that \(\mathcal{H}_{2}(G)\), and thus \(T(G)\), have order \(2\) when \(G\) is a finite nonabelian simple group. The author of the paper under review has shown that the same result holds when \(G\) is a finite quasisimple group, that is, \(G = [G, G]\) and \(G/Z(G)\) is simple [the author, J. Pure Appl. Algebra 223, No. 7, 2804--2821 (2019; Zbl 1472.12001)]. When \(G\) is a finite almost simple group, that is, \(\operatorname{Inn}(T) \le G \le \operatorname{Aut}(T)\) for some nonabelian finite simple group \(T\), the author has proved that \(\mathcal{H}_{2}(G)\) can be arbitrarily large [the author, Proc. Am. Math. Soc. 147, No. 12, 5093--5103 (2019; Zbl 1441.16039)]. The main result of the paper under review is that if \(G\) is a finite almost simple group, then \(\mathcal{H}_{1}(G)\), and thus \(T(G)\), have order \(2\).