Graham Higman's PORC theorem

DOI10.22108/IJGT.2018.112574.1498zbMATH Open1443.20027arXiv1808.04145OpenAlexW2886293527MaRDI QIDQ5124336FDOQ5124336

Authors: Michael Vaughan-Lee 

Publication date: 18 September 2020

Abstract: Graham Higman published two important papers in 1960. In the first of these papers he proved that for any positive integer $n$ the number of groups of order $p^n$ is bounded by a polynomial in $p$, and he formulated his famous PORC conjecture about the form of the function $f(p^n)$ giving the number of groups of order $p^n$. In the second of these two papers he proved that the function giving the number of $p$-class two groups of order $p^n$ is PORC. He established this result as a corollary to a very general result about vector spaces acted on by the general linear group. This theorem takes over a page to state, and is so general that it is hard to see what is going on. Higman's proof of this general theorem contains several new ideas and is quite hard to follow. However in the last few years several authors have developed and implemented algorithms for computing Higman's PORC formulae in special cases of his general theorem. These algorithms give perspective on what are the key points in Higman's proof, and also simplify parts of the proof. In this note I give a proof of Higman's general theorem written in the light of these recent developments.

Full work available at URL: https://arxiv.org/abs/1808.04145

Recommendations

• Graham Higman's PORC conjecture.
• scientific article; zbMATH DE number 2208515
• Grushko's theorem
• scientific article; zbMATH DE number 5485324
• Poncelet theorems
• scientific article; zbMATH DE number 3205148
• The Hirsch conjecture
• scientific article; zbMATH DE number 3903320
• Publication:4206935
• scientific article; zbMATH DE number 1930531

zbMATH Keywords

\(p\)-groupPORCenumerating \(p\)-groups

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Solvable, nilpotent (super)algebras (17B30) Finite nilpotent groups, (p)-groups (20D15)

Cites Work

• Title not available (Why is that?)
• The Characters of the Finite General Linear Groups
• Enumerating p -Groups. I: Inequalities
• Groups and nilpotent Lie rings whose order is the sixth power of a prime.
• On Graham Higman's famous PORC paper.
• Enumerating p -Groups, II: Problems Whose Solution is PORC
• Title not available (Why is that?)
• Enumeration of nilpotent associative algebras of class 2 over arbitrary finite fields

Cited In (5)

• Higman's PORC conjecture for a family of groups
• Counting \(p\)-groups and Lie algebras using PORC formulae
• Graham Higman's PORC conjecture.
• On Graham Higman's famous PORC paper.
• Non-PORC behaviour of a class of descendant \(p\)-groups.

This page was built for publication: Graham Higman's PORC theorem

Report a bug (only for logged in users!)Click here to report a bug for this page (MaRDI item Q5124336)