Coprime subdegrees for primitive permutation groups and completely reducible linear groups. (Q375689)

Let \(k\) be an arbitrary field and \(H\) be a finite group. Suppose that \(V\) is a \(kH\)-module and \(a,b\in V\). Denote the sizes of the \(H\)-orbits of \(a\) and \(b\) by \(m\) and \(n\), respectively. Theorem 1.1: If \(V\) is completely reducible and \(m\) and \(n\) are coprime, then \(C_H(a+b)=C_H(a)\cap C_H(b)\) and the orbit for \(a+b\) has size \(mn\). (\textit{I. M. Isaacs} [Proc. Am. Math. Soc. 25, 638-641 (1970; Zbl 0203.34902)] proved a similar theorem with stronger hypotheses.) Theorem 1.2: If \(V\) is irreducible and \(a\) and \(b\) are nonzero, then \(m\) and \(n\) cannot be coprime. Theorem 1.4: (In the special case where \(k\) has characteristic \(p\) and \(H\) is \(p\)-soluble) If \(a\) is fixed by a Sylow \(p\)-subgroup of \(H\) and the \(H\)-orbit of \(a\) spans \(V\), then \(C_V(H)\) has dimension at most \(1\) and it contains \(b\) whenever \(m\) and \(n\) are coprime. Using these results the authors also prove the following. Theorem 1.5: Let \(G\) be a finite primitive permutation group with two non-trivial coprime subdegrees. Then in the O'Nan-Scott classification \(G\) is of either almost simple type, product action type or twisted wreath product type. (The authors announce that they have since proved that a primitive permutation group cannot have a set of three non-trivial subdegrees which are pairwise coprime.) (Also submitted to MR.)