Generation of second maximal subgroups and the existence of special primes

DOI10.1017/FMS.2017.21MaRDI QIDQ4593231zbMATH OpenOpenAlexFDO

Authors Timothy C. Burness, Martin W. Liebeck, Aner Shalev

Publication date 22 November 2017

Published in Forum of Mathematics, Sigma (Search for Journal in Brave)

Copyright license Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International

Full work available at URL https://arxiv.org/abs/1611.06196

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Simple groups: alternating groups and groups of Lie type (20D06) Arithmetic and combinatorial problems involving abstract finite groups (20D60) Generators, relations, and presentations of groups (20F05) Series and lattices of subgroups (20D30) Maximal subgroups (20E28) Probabilistic methods in group theory (20P05)

Abstract: Let $G$ be a finite almost simple group. It is well known that $G$ can be generated by 3 elements, and in previous work we showed that 6 generators suffice for all maximal subgroups of $G$. In this paper we consider subgroups at the next level of the subgroup lattice - the so-called second maximal subgroups. We prove that with the possible exception of some families of rank 1 groups of Lie type, the number of generators of every second maximal subgroup of $G$ is bounded by an absolute constant. We also show that such a bound holds without any exceptions if and only if there are only finitely many primes $r$ for which there is a prime power $q$ such that $(q^r-1)/(q-1)$ is prime. The latter statement is a formidable open problem in Number Theory. Applications to random generation and polynomial growth are also given.

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Cited in

(3)

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Describes a project that uses

Uses Software

• Magma
• ATLAS Group Representations

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