The 2F-modules for nearly simple groups. (Q865476)

\textit{R. M. Guralnick} and \textit{G. Malle} [in J. Algebra 257, No. 2, 348-372 (2002; Zbl 1017.20005) and Proc. Gainesville Conf. finite groups 2003, de Gruyter, Berlin. 117-183 (2004; Zbl 1085.20004)] started a classification of the 2F-modules for finite quasi-simple groups. There were some cases unresolved. \textit{R. Lawther} [in J. Algebra 307, No. 2, 614-642 (2007; see the following review Zbl 1115.20003)] solved the open cases from the J. Algebra paper. In fact he showed that they do not occur. In this paper, the authors first deal with the open cases from the second paper above. These were \(E_7(q)\) on the 56-dimensional module, \(^2E_6(q)\) on the 27-dimensional module, \(F_4(p^f)\), \(p\) odd, \(p\neq 3\) on the 27-dimensional module and \(F_4(3^f)\) on the 25-dimensional module. They show that the first three do not occur while the last is a 2F-module. The important new technique in this paper is to relate possible offenders to Abelian sets of roots and so get a survey over possible offenders. Recall an offender is an elementary Abelian \(p\)-subgroup of \(G\) such that \(|V|\leq|A|^2|C_V(A)|\). In fact such an approach had been used by B. Cooperstein and G. Mason in an unpublished paper on F-modules. Secondly, the author now extend the results of the two starting papers to automorphism groups of the quasi-simple group \(G\) which are generated by the conjugates of \(A\). Hence with the four papers we now have a classification of all irreducible 2F-modules for the automorphism groups of quasi-simple groups. A well known result says that a failure of factorization module (\(|V|\geq|A||C_V(A)|\)) always has a quadratic offender \(A\), i.e., \([V,A,A]=0\). As a corollary of the classification above we get that a 2F-module for an almost simple group always has a cubic offender \(A\), i.e., \([V,A,A,A]=0\).