Finite groups isospectral to simple groups (Q6168746)

Let \(G\) be a finite group, the spectrum \(\varpi(G)=\{ o(g) \mid g \in G \}\) is the set of element orders of \(G\). Let \(\mathcal{C}\) be a class of groups, a group \(G \in \mathcal{C}\) is recognizable by its spectrum if, whenever \(H \in \mathcal{C}\) is such that \(\omega(H)=\omega(G)\), then \(H \simeq G\). In [J. Aust. Math. Soc., Ser. A 36, 354--356 (1984; Zbl 0537.20008)], the third author discovered that \(\mathrm{PSL}_{2}(7)\) can be characterized in the class of finite groups solely by the spectrum and this result opened a wide way for investigations of recognizability of groups by spectrum. It is interesting to observe that \textit{V. D. Lytkina} and \textit{A. A. Kuznetsov} in [Sib. Èlektron. Mat. Izv. 4, 136--140 (2007; Zbl 1134.20009)] proved the recognizability of \(\mathrm{PSL}(2,7)\) by spectrum in the class of all groups. The main goal of this paper is to survey results concerning recognition of finite simple groups by spectrum, in particular, to list all finite simple groups for which the recognition problem is solved.