On groups with a class-preserving outer automorphism. (Q394126)

Let \(G\) be a finite group and let \(\Aut_c(G)\) denote the group of class-preserving automorphisms of \(G\). An automorphism of \(G\) is said to be class-preserving if it leaves all conjugacy classes of \(G\) invariant. In the paper under review, the authors produce four distinct infinite families \(\{H_i\}\), for \(i\geq 1\), where \(H_i\) is a 4-generator 2-group of order \(2^{i+5}\) and nilpotency class \(i+1\) and such that every \(H_i\) has a non-inner class-preserving automorphism. The construction is a blend of machine computation and skillful ``manual'' manipulation of normal forms of elements in a pc-presentation. The most important examples in the literature on class-preserving automorphisms are described in the Introduction and the authors remark that, although such infinite series of examples have been obtained previously, their examples exhibit a surprisingly strong relation between the orders and the nilpotency class.