Simple groups admit Beauville structures.

DOI10.1112/JLMS/JDR062MaRDI QIDQ2890307zbMATH OpenOpenAlexFDO

Authors Gunter Malle, Robert Guralnick

Publication date 8 June 2012

Published in Journal of the London Mathematical Society. Second Series (Search for Journal in Brave)

Full work available at URL https://arxiv.org/abs/1009.6183

zbMATH Keywords

Beauville surfacesconjugacy classesfinite simple groupssimple algebraic groups

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Coverings of curves, fundamental group (14H30) Surfaces of general type (14J29) Representations of finite groups of Lie type (20C33) Finite simple groups and their classification (20D05) Simple groups (20E32) Conjugacy classes for groups (20E45) Generators, relations, and presentations of groups (20F05) Linear algebraic groups over arbitrary fields (20G15)

Abstract: We answer a conjecture of Bauer, Catanese and Grunewald showing that all finite simple groups other than the alternating group of degree 5 admit unmixed Beauville structures. We also consider an analog of the result for simple algebraic groups which depends on some upper bounds for character values of regular semisimple elements in finite groups of Lie type and obtain definitive results about the variety of triples in semisimple regular classes with product 1. Finally, we prove that any finite simple group contains two conjugacy classes C,D such that any pair of elements in C x D generates the group.

Review text

According to \textit{F. Catanese} [Am. J. Math. 122, No. 1, 1-44 (2000; Zbl 0983.14013)], a Beauville surface is a compact complex surface \(S\) which is rigid (that is, it has no non-trivial deformations) and satisfies \(S=(X\times Y)/G\), where \(X\) and \(Y\) are curves of genus at least 2 and \(G\) is a finite group acting freely on \(X\times Y\). A finite group \(G\) is said to admit an unmixed Beauville structure if there exist two pairs of generators \((x_1,y_1)\) and \((x_2,y_2)\) for \(G\) such that \(\Sigma(x_1,y_1)\cap\Sigma(x_2,y_2)=\{1\}\), where, for \(x,y\in G\), \(\Sigma(x,y)\) is the union of conjugacy classes of all powers of \(x\), all powers of \(y\), and all powers of \(xy\). \textit{I. Bauer, F. Catanese} and \textit{F. Grunewald} [Mediterr. J. Math. 3, 121-146 (2006; Zbl 1167.14300)] conjectured that all finite non-Abelian simple groups other than the alternating group of degree 5 admit unmixed Beauville structures.NEWLINENEWLINE The first main result of the present paper is a proof of this conjecture. A proof of the conjecture was given by \textit{S. Garion, M. Larsen} and \textit{A. Lubotzky} [J. Reine Angew. Math. 666, 225-243 (2012; Zbl 1255.20008)] for all sufficiently large non-Abelian simple groups, by \textit{Y. Fuertes} and \textit{G. González-Diez} [Math. Z. 264, No. 4, 959-968 (2010; Zbl 1190.30027)] for the alternating groups, \textit{Y. Fuertes} and \textit{G. A. Jones} [J. Algebra 340, No. 1, 13-27 (2011; Zbl 1233.14027)] and by \textit{S. Garion} and \textit{N. Penegini} [``New Beauville surfaces and finite simple groups, \url{arXiv:0910.5402}] for some low rank cases. The authors note that \textit{B. Fairbain, K. Magaard} and \textit{C. Parker} [``Generation of finite simple groups with an application to groups acting on Beauville surfaces, \url{arXiv:1010.3500}] also proved the conjecture using similar methods.NEWLINENEWLINE The second main result of the present paper is a proof of an analog of the first result for simple algebraic groups which depends on some upper bounds for character values of regular semisimple elements in finite groups of Lie type. Finally, it is proved that any finite simple group contains two conjugacy classes \(C\) and \(D\) such that any pair of elements in \(C\times D\) generates the group. The authors note that \textit{W. M. Kantor, A. Lubotzky} and \textit{A. Shalev} [J. Algebra 348, No. 1, 302-314 (2011; Zbl 1248.20036)] proved a slighly weaker version of the last result.

Recommendations

• Beauville surfaces and finite simple groups.
• Generation of finite quasisimple groups with an application to groups acting on Beauville surfaces.
• New Beauville surfaces and finite simple groups
• On Beauville structures on the groups \(S_{n}\) and \(A_{n}\)
• Remarks on lifting Beauville structures of quasisimple groups.

Cited in

(52)

• Almost independence and irreducibility in simple finite and algebraic groups
• Metabelian thin Beauville p-groups
• Invariable generation of permutation and linear groups
• Invariable generation of finite classical groups
• The invariably generating graph of the alternating and symmetric groups
• On Beauville structures on the groups \(S_{n}\) and \(A_{n}\)
• Minimal invariable generating sets
• Coprime invariable generation and minimal-exponent groups.
• Kodaira fibrations and beyond: methods for moduli theory
• Normal coverings and pairwise generation of finite alternating and symmetric groups.
• Conjugacy classes of derangements in finite transitive groups
• On the probability of generating invariably a finite simple group
• Character bounds for regular semisimple elements and asymptotic results on Thompson's conjecture
• Primitive permutation groups and derangements of prime power order.
• Characterization of solvable groups and solvable radical.
• Generation of finite quasisimple groups with an application to groups acting on Beauville surfaces.
• Corrigendum: Generation of finite quasisimple groups with an application to groups acting on Beauville surfaces.
• Automorphism groups of Beauville surfaces
• Beauville surfaces and finite simple groups.
• Adequate subgroups. II
• Characteristically simple Beauville groups. I: Cartesian powers of alternating groups
• Products of conjugacy classes and fixed point spaces
• Series of p-groups with Beauville structure
• Coxeter groups as Beauville groups
• 2-coverings for exceptional and sporadic simple groups.
• New Beauville surfaces and finite simple groups
• Criteria for solvable radical membership via p-elements.
• Invariable generation and the Chebotarev invariant of a finite group.
• Generating sets of finite groups
• Derangements in finite classical groups for actions related to extension field and imprimitive subgroups and the solution of the Boston–Shalev conjecture
• Invariable generation of infinite groups.
• Invariable generation with elements of coprime prime-power orders.
• Some exceptional Beauville structures.
• CONNECTED COMPONENTS IN THE INVARIABLY GENERATING GRAPH OF A FINITE GROUP
• Products of derangements in simple permutation groups
• Beauville structures in finite p-groups
• Beauville structures in \(p\)-central quotients
• Strongly real Beauville groups.
• Beauville surfaces and probabilistic group theory.
• Remarks on lifting Beauville structures of quasisimple groups.
• Beauville surfaces, moduli spaces and finite groups
• On invariable generation of alternating groups by elements of prime and prime power order
• Ramification structures for quotients of the Grigorchuk groups
• Character levels and character bounds for finite classical groups
• Finite groups satisfying the independence property
• Base sizes of primitive groups of diagonal type
• Beauville surfaces and finite groups
• Super graphs on groups. II
• Beauville \(p\)-groups of wild type and groups of maximal class
• On derangements in simple permutation groups
• Variations on the Thompson theorem
• The number of isomorphism classes of Beauville surfaces with Beauville p-group

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