Quasithin groups (Q4385458)

One of the yet unpublished parts of the classification of the finite simple groups is the treatment of the quasithin groups. In 1980 G. Mason distributed preprints on this subject but never published his work. In fact it turned out that he never gave a complete classification. A few years ago M. Aschbacher finished this classification by starting at the point G. Mason stopped. Nevertheless for publishing it is necessary to have a consistent proof right from the beginning. This is the aim of a project started by the authors in 1996 using also more advanced techniques which were not available at Mason's time in 1980. The paper gives an overview over the work done so far. For the entire collection see [Zbl 0883.00017].