Presentations of finite simple groups: profinite and cohomological approaches. (Q2469769)

There is a long history of studying presentations of groups and, in particular, the number of generators and the number and length of relations required for finite groups. In this paper, the authors prove the following three closely related theorems: (A) every finite quasisimple group has a profinite presentations with 2 generators and at most 18 relations; (B) if \(G\) is a finite quasisimple group, \(F\) a field and \(M\) an \(FG\)-module, then \(\dim H^2(G,M)\leq(17.5)\dim M\); (C) if \(G\) is a finite group, \(F\) a field and \(M\) an irreducible faithful \(FG\)-module, then \(\dim H^2(G,M)\leq(18.5)\dim M\). All three theorems depend on the classification of finite simple groups.