Coverings of the smallest Paige loop. (Q644694)

If \(G\) is a loop then we say that the smallest number of subloops needed to cover \(G\) is the covering number of \(G\). It was shown by \textit{M. J. Tomkinson} [in Math. Scand. 81, No. 2, 191-198 (1997; Zbl 0905.20014)] that there does not exist a group with a covering number of seven. He also conjectured that there are no groups with a covering number of eleven. Coverings of groups have been broadly explored and some results have been shown by \textit{T. Foguel} and \textit{L.-C. Kappe} [in Expo. Math. 23, No. 3, 255-270 (2005; Zbl 1103.20064)] to also hold for loops. The author proves in this paper that even though there does not exist a group with a covering number of seven, there does exist a finite simple Moufang loops, namely a Paige loop, that has seven as its covering number. Moreover, its automorphism group permutes all such coverings, with seven proper subloops, transitively.