On an open problem of Guo-Skiba (Q335580)

Let \(G\) be a finite group and \(A<G\). Let \(A_G=\bigcap\limits_{g\in G}A^g\); so \(A_G\) is the largest normal subgroup of \(G\) contained in \(A\). Then any chief factor \(H/A_G\) of \(G\) is called a \(G\)-boundary factor of \(A\), and the subgroup \((H \cap A)/A_G\) is called a \(G\)-trace of \(A\). Answering a question of \textit{W. Guo} et al. [Commun. Math. Stat. 2, No. 3--4, 349--361 (2014; Zbl 1328.20038)], the main theorem of the paper under review states that \(G\) is \(p\)-solvable if and only if every chain of length 2 contains a proper subgroup \(M\) of \(G\) such that one of the following holds: (1) some \(G\)-trace of \(M\) is subnormal in \(G\), or (2) every \(G\)-boundary factor of \(M\) is a \(p'\)-group. As a consequence of the main result the authors obtain two new characterizations \(p\)-hypercyclically embedded subgroups.