The maximum distinguishing number of a group (Q2500989)

Summary: Let \(G\) be a group acting faithfully on a set \(X\). The distinguishing number of the action of \(G\) on \(X\), denoted \(D_G(X)\), is the smallest number of colors such that there exists a coloring of \(X\) where no nontrivial group element induces a color-preserving permutation of \(X\). In this paper, we show that if \(G\) is nilpotent of class \(c\) or supersolvable of length \(c\) then \(G\) always acts with distinguishing number at most \(c+1\). We obtain that all metacyclic groups act with distinguishing number at most 3; these include all groups of squarefree order. We also prove that the distinguishing number of the action of the general linear group \(\text{GL}_n(K)\) over a field \(K\) on the vector space \(K^n\) is 2 if \(K\) has at least \(n+1\) elements.