The order of elements in Sylow p-subgroups of the symmetric group.

DOI10.1023/B:AMHU.0000049286.70907.FBMaRDI QIDQ812792zbMATH OpenOpenAlexFDO

Authors Jan-Christoph Schlage-Puchta

Publication date 26 January 2006

Published in Acta Mathematica Hungarica (Search for Journal in Brave)

Full work available at URL https://arxiv.org/abs/1105.1610

zbMATH Keywords

conjugacy classesorders of elementsstatistical group theorySylow subgroupssymmetric groups

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Asymptotic results on counting functions for algebraic and topological structures (11N45) Subgroups of symmetric groups (20B35) Sylow subgroups, Sylow properties, (pi)-groups, (pi)-structure (20D20) Probabilistic methods in group theory (20P05)

Abstract: Define a random variable $x{i}_n$ by choosing a conjugacy class $C$ of the Sylow $p$-subgroup of $S_{p^n}$ by random, and let $x{i}_n$ be the logarithm of the order of an element in $C$. We show that $x{i}_n$ has bounded variance and mean order $fraclognlogp+O(1)$, which differs significantly from the average order of elements chosen with equal probability.

Review text

In a sequence of papers, \textit{P. Erdős} and \textit{P. Turán} developed a statistical theory of the symmetric group \(S_n\) on \(n\) letters. They proved that almost all elements of \(S_n\) have order \(\exp((1/2+o(1))\log^2n)\) [Z. Wahrscheinlichkeitstheor. Verw. Geb. 4, 175-186 (1965; Zbl 0137.25602)], whereas the elements of almost all conjugacy classes of \(S_n\) have order \(\exp((c+o(1))n^{1/2})\) with a positive constant \(c\) [Period. Math. Hung. 2, 149-163 (1972; Zbl 0247.20008)]. P. Turán posed the problem of developing a statistical theory for subgroups of \(S_n\), in particular for Sylow subgroups. For a fixed prime \(p\), let \(P_n\) be a Sylow \(p\)-subgroup of \(S_{p^n}\). \textit{P. P. Pálfy} and the reviewer [in Studies in pure mathematics, Mem. of P. Turán, 531-542 (1983; Zbl 0521.20054)] proved that, for \(\omega(n)\nearrow\infty\), almost all elements of \(P_n\) have order \(\exp(M_n+O(\omega(n))\log p)\) where \(M_n\) is the mean value of a suitable random variable and \(c_1(p)n<M_n<c_2(p)n\) for sufficiently large \(n\). \textit{M. Abért} and \textit{B. Virág} [J. Am. Math. Soc. 18, No. 1, 157-192 (2005; Zbl 1135.20015)] proved that \(M_n=(1+o(1))c_2(p)n\). In the paper under review, the author defines a random variable \(\xi_n\) to be the logarithm of the common order the elements (to the base \(p\)) in a randomly chosen conjugacy class of \(P_n\) and proves \(\xi_n\) has bounded variance and mean value \((\log n)/(\log p)+O(1)\).

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