Reduction of the Hall-Paige conjecture to sporadic simple groups. (Q1014610)

A complete mapping of a group \(G\) is a permutation \(\theta\colon G\to G\) for which the mapping \(g\to g\theta(g)\) is also a permutation; \(G\) is admissible if \(G\) admits complete mappings. Complete mappings of \(G\) are equivalent to transversals of the Cayley table of a group \(G\), considered as Latin square. A long-standing problem is that of determining which groups are admissible. \textit{M. Hall} and \textit{L. J. Paige} [Pac. J. Math. 5, 541-549 (1955; Zbl 0066.27703)] proved that if a finite group is admissible then its Sylow 2-subgroup is trivial or noncyclic. They conjectured that this condition is also sufficient. In the present paper, the author proves that it is sufficient to check the conjecture for the 26 sporadic simple groups and the Tits group. Using this result, \textit{A. B. Evans} [J. Algebra 321, No. 1, 105-116 (2009; Zbl 1166.20012)] proved that \(J_4\) is the only possible minimal counterexample to this conjecture. J. Bray reports having proved that this group is also not a counterexample, thus completing a proof of the Hall-Paige conjecture.