A characterization of finite symplectic groups over fields with more than two elements (Q923724)

Let G be a finite group. Generalizing properties of the (long) root subgroups (transvections for a fixed center) of Sp(2n,q) the author of the paper under review calls a class \(R^ G\) of elementary abelian p-subgroups of order \(q(=p^ a)\) a class of p-transvection subgroups of symplectic type of order q, if the following holds: (1) \(<R_ 1,R_ 2>\simeq SL(2,q)\) or PSL(2,q) for \(R_ 1,R_ 2\in R^ G\) and \([R_ 1,R_ 2]\neq 1\). (2) \(<R_ 1,R_ 2,R_ 3>\simeq V(2,q)\cdot SL(2,q)\) for \(R_ 1,R_ 2,R_ 3\in R^ G\) and \(R_ i\not\subseteq C_ G(R_ j,R_ k)\) for \(\{1,2,3\}=\{i,j,k\}\). The author proves the following result: Theorem. Let \(G=<R^ G>\) and \(R^ G\) be as above. Then there is a split exact sequence \(1\to V\to G/Z(G)\to \bar G\to 1\), where \(\bar G\simeq Sp(2n,q)\) or PSp(2n,q) (here \(V=1)\) and V is a direct sum of natural modules for G. Predecessors of this paper [Proc. Lond. Math. Soc., III. Ser. 58, 89-111, 112-136 (1989; Zbl 0673.20015 and Zbl 0669.20024)] handle essentially the structure of G/N, where N is the largest solvable subgroup of G. In this paper the main work deals with the identification of N/Z(G) as a direct sum of natural Sp(2n,q)-modules. One of the major steps in the proof is that an Sp(2n,q)-module M over GF(q) with \([M,R]\subseteq C_ M(Q)\) for R,Q commuting (long) root subgroups is in the generic case a direct sum of natural modules.