IBIS primitive groups of almost simple type (Q7006258)

A base for a permutation group \(G\) is a sequence of points whose stabilizer in \(G\) is the identity. A base is irredundant if no base point is fixed by the stabilizer of the previous points. The minimal size of a base for a permutation group \(G\) is denoted by \(b(G)\).\N\N\textit{P. J. Cameron} and \textit{D. G. Fon-Der-Flaass} [Eur. J. Comb. 16, No. 6, 537--544 (1995; Zbl 0837.05036)] proved that in a finite permutation group the following conditions are equivalent: (1) all irredundant bases have the same size, (2) the irredundant bases are invariant under re-ordering, (3) the irredundant bases are the bases of a matroid. A permutation group \(G\) satisfying these conditions is called an irredundant bases of invariant size (IBIS) group. The irredundant bases of \(G\) have size \(b(G)\).\N\N\textit{A. Lucchini} et al. [J. Comb. Theory, Ser. A 184, Article ID 105516, 17 p. (2021; Zbl 1542.20008)] proved that a primitive IBIS group is of affine type, is almost simple, or is of diagonal type. In the latter case, they gave a full description of such groups. \textit{A. Lucchini} and \textit{D. Malinin} [Commun. Algebra 52, No. 1, 457--465 (2024; Zbl 1531.20005)] made a first attempt to classify IBIS groups of affine type.\N\NThe paper under review deals with almost simple primitive IBIS groups. \textit{M. Lee} and \textit{P. Spiga} [J. Group Theory 26, No. 5, 915--930 (2023; Zbl 1522.20011)] classified the almost simple primitive IBIS groups with socle an alternating group and \textit{M. Lee} [``Primitive almost simple IBIS groups with sporadic socle'', Preprint, \url{arXiv:2302.01521}] classified the almost simple primitive IBIS groups having socle a sporadic simple group.\N\NThe main result of the present paper is the following: \N\NLet \(G\) be an almost simple primitive group having socle a simple group of Lie type \(G_0\), with \(b(G) \geq 6\) when \(G_0\) is exceptional and \(b(G) \geq 5\) when \(G_0\) is classical. Then \(G\) is an IBIS group if and only if \(G\) is either \(\mathrm{SL}_{d}(2)\) or \(\mathrm{Sp}_{d}(2)\) in its natural action on the non-zero vectors of a \(d\)-dimensional vector space over the field with two elements or \(G = \mathrm{\Omega}_{d}^{\pm}(q)\) with \(d \geq 4\) and \(q \geq 4\) acting on the non-singular \(1\)-dimensional subspaces of the \(d\)-dimensional vector space over the field with \(q\) elements.\N\NThe lower bound condition on \(b(G)\) in the previous theorem comes from the use of the proved Cameron-Kantor conjecture.\N\NTable 1 of the paper contains examples of almost simple primitive IBIS groups. Some of these groups are sharply \(k\)-transitive and some of them are geometric.