Involutive automorphisms of finite \(p\)-groups. (Q361730)

Let \(p\) be a fixed odd prime number. The authors study the class of finite \(p\)-groups \(G\) admitting an automorphism \(\varphi\) of order 2 such that \(G=\langle g^{-1}g^\varphi\mid g\in G\rangle\) and \((g^{-1}g^\varphi)^p=1\) for all \(g\in G\). Their main result is that if the derived length of \(G\) is \(d\) and the centralizer \(C_G(\varphi)\) is nilpotent of class \(c\), then the nilpotency class of \(G\) is bounded by a function depending only on \(d\), \(c\) and \(p\). They prove also that if \(p=3\) and \(C_G(\varphi)\) is nilpotent of class \(c\), then \(G\) is nilpotent of class at most \(2c+1\); in particular if \(C_G(\varphi)\) has exponent 3, then \(G\) is nilpotent of class at most 7 and has exponent at most 9.