Product decompositions of quasirandom groups and a Jordan type theorem. (Q550564)

A subset \(X\) of a group \(G\) is called product-free it there are no solutions to \(xy=z\) with \(x,y,z\in X\). The authors note that a result of \textit{W. T. Gowers} [Comb. Probab. Comput. 17, No. 3, 363-387 (2008; Zbl 1191.20016)] on product-free sets in groups has an unexpected consequence. If \(k\) is the minimal degree of a representation of the finite group \(G\), then for every subset \(B\) of \(G\) with \(|B|>|G|/k^{1/3}\) we have \(B^3=G\). They use this to obtain improved versions of recent deep theorems of Helfgott and of Shalev concerning product decomposition of finite simple groups, with much simpler proofs. One can ask whether the conclusion \(B^3=G\) remains true with weaker assumptions on the cardinality of \(B\). A Jordan type theorem proved in the paper indicates how far one can go in this direction. More precisely, the authors prove that a finite linear group \(G\) of degree \(k\) over the complex field has a permutation representation of degree at most \(c_0k^2\) with Abelian kernel, where \(c_0<10^{10}\) is an absolute constant. This implies that if \(k\) is the minimal degree of a representation of the finite group \(G\), then \(G\) has a proper subgroup of index at most \(c_0k^2\), hence a product-free subset of size \(|G|/(ck)\). This answers a question of Gowers.