The construction of finite solvable groups revisited. (Q402704)

The goal of this very interesting and exemplarily written paper is to introduce a novel algorithm to enumerate finite solvable groups. This has been implemented as the package GroupExt in GAP [GAP Group, GAP -- Groups, Algorithms and Programming, Version 4.4, available from \url{http://www.gap-system.org}, 2005]. As a result, the authors are able to provide a verification for the small groups library of \textit{H. U. Besche} et al. [Electron. Res. Announc. Am. Math. Soc. 7, 1-4 (2001; Zbl 0986.20024); Int. J. Algebra Comput. 12, No. 5, 623-644 (2002; Zbl 1020.20013)], and are able to construct for the first time all groups of order \(2^8\cdot 3^2=2304\). The algorithm can be thought as an extension of the \(p\)-group generation algorithm of \textit{E. A. O'Brien} [J. Symb. Comput. 9, No. 5-6, 677-698 (1990; Zbl 0736.20001)], and like the latter reduces the isomorphism problem to an orbit-stabilizer calculation. After a non-technical introduction, the authors introduce an essential ingredient, the \(F\)-central series of a finite group \(G\). This is a certain central series of \(G\) of the form \(G\geq F(G)=\nu_0(G)\geq\nu_1(G)\geq\nu_2(G)\geq\cdots\), where \(F(G)\) is the Fitting subgroup of \(G\), and all quotients \(\nu_i(G)/\nu_{i+1}(G)\) are centralized by \(G\), and are the product of elementary abelian groups. The \(F\)-class of \(G\) is the smallest \(i\) such that \(\nu_i(G)\) is trivial. The authors first deal with the groups of \(F\)-class \(1\). Then the procedure is extended to arbitrary solvable groups, via the appropriate analogues of Schur multiplicators and covering groups. The range of application of these techniques is not limited to solvable groups. When applied to the non-nilpotent groups of order \(2304\), the algorithm yields that they form \(15\,756\,130\) isomorphism classes.