Groups containing small locally maximal product-free sets (Q2402946)

Summary: Let \(G\) be a group and \(S\) a nonempty subset of \(G\). Then, \(S\) is \textit{product-free} if \(a b \notin S\) for all \(a, b \in S\). We say \(S\) is a \textit{locally maximal product-free set} if \(S\) is product-free and not properly contained in any other product-free set. It is natural to ask whether it is possible to determine the smallest possible size of a locally maximal product-free set in \(G\). Alternatively, given a positive integer \(k\), one can ask the following: what is the largest integer \(n_k\) such that there is a group of order \(n_k\) with a locally maximal product-free set of size \(k\)? The groups containing locally maximal product-free sets of sizes \(1\) and \(2\) are known, and it has been conjectured that \(n_3 = 24\). The purpose of this paper is to prove this conjecture and hence show that the list of known locally maximal product-free sets of size 3 is complete. We also report some experimental observations about the sequence \(n_k\).