Bob Oliver conjectures that if p is an odd prime and S is a finite p-group, then the Oliver subgroup contains the Thompson subgroup Je(S). A positive resolution of this conjecture would give the existence and uniqueness of centric linking systems for fusion systems at odd primes. Using the ideas and work of Glauberman, we prove that if p ≥ 5, G is a finite p-group, and V is an elementary abelian p-group which is an F-module for G, then there exists a quadratic offender which is 2-subnormal (normal in its normal closure) in G. We apply this to show that Oliver's Conjecture holds provided that the quotient has class at most log2(p − 2) + 1, or p ≥ 5 and G is equal to its own Baumann subgroup.

We find conditions which imply that a saturated fusion system over a product of 2-groups splits as a product of fusion systems over the factors.

We develop a theory of 2-fusion systems of even characteristic, and use that theory to show that all S3-free saturated 2-fusion systems are constrained. This supplies a new proof of Glauberman's Theorem on S4-free groups and its various corollaries.

For any finite group G, we impose an algebraic condition, the Gnil-coset condition, and prove that any finite Oliver group G satisfying the Gnil-coset condition has a smooth action on some sphere with isolated fixed points at which the tangent G-modules are not isomorphic to each other. Moreover, we prove that, for any finite non-solvable group G not isomorphic to Aut(A6) or PΣL(2, 27), the Gnil-coset condition holds if and only if rG ≥ 2, where rG is the number of real conjugacy classes of elements of G not of prime power order. As a conclusion, the Laitinen Conjecture holds for any finite non-solvable group not isomorphic to Aut(A6).

After summarizing from previous papers the definitions of the concepts associated with nets, i.e. triples of 6-transpositions in the Monster up to braiding, we give some results.

We revise the matching algorithm of Noeske (LMS J. Comput. Math. 11 (2008) 213–222) and introduce a new approach via composition series to expedite the calculations. Furthermore, we show how the matching algorithm may be applied in the more general and frequently occurring setting that we are only given subalgebras of the condensed algebras which each contain the separable algebra of one of their Wedderburn–Malcev decompositions.

We identify the groups ${\text{PSU} }_{6} (2)$, ${\text{PSU} }_{6} (2){: }2$, ${\text{PSU} }_{6} (2){: }3$ and $\text{Aut} ({\text{PSU} }_{6} (2))$ from the structure of the centralizer of an element of order three.

Let $w$ be a multilinear commutator word. We prove that if $e$ is a positive integer and $G$ is a finite group in which any nilpotent subgroup generated by $w$-values has exponent dividing $e$, then the exponent of the corresponding verbal subgroup $w(G)$ is bounded in terms of $e$ and $w$only.

When a minimal Heilbronn character θ is unfaithful on a Sylow p-subgroup P of a finite group G, we know that G is quasi-simple, p is odd, P is cyclic, NG(P) is maximal and either NG(P) is the unique maximal subgroup containing Ω1(P) or G/Z(G) ≅ L2(q) for q an odd prime with p dividing q − 1. In this paper we examine the exceptional case, where G/Z(G) ≅ L2(q), explicitly constructing unfaithful minimal Heilbronn characters from the non-principal irreducible characters of G.

Let Un(q) denote the upper triangular group of degree n over the finite field with q elements. It is known that irreducible constituents of supercharacters partition the set of all irreducible characters Irr(Un(q)). In this paper we present a correspondence between supercharacters and pattern subgroups of the form Uk(q) ∩ wUk(q), where w is a monomial matrix in GLk(q) for some k < n.

Let F be an algebraically closed field, G be a finite group and H be a subgroup of G. We answer several questions about the centralizer algebra FGH. Among these, we provide examples to show that

• • the centre Z(FGH) can be larger than the F-algebra generated by Z(FG) and Z(FH),

• • FGH can have primitive central idempotents that are not of the form ef, where e and f are primitive central idempotents of FG and FH respectively,

• • it is not always true that the simple FGH-modules are the same as the non-zero FGH-modules HomFH(S, T ↓ H), where S and T are simple FH and FG-modules, respectively.

We define sparse saturated fusion systems and show that, for odd primes, sparse systems are constrained. This simplifies the proof of the Glauberman–Thompson p-Nilpotency Theorem for fusion systems and a related theorem of Stellmacher. We then define a more restrictive class of saturated fusion systems, called extremely sparse systems, that are constrained for all primes.

Consider the Mackey functor that assigns to each finite group G the Green ring of finitely generated kG-modules, where k is a field of characteristic p > 0. Thévenaz foresaw in 1988 that the class of primordial groups for this functor is the family of k-Dress groups. In this paper we prove that this is true for the subfunctor defined by the Green ring of finitely generated kG-modules of trivial source.

Many problems about local analysis in a finite group G reduce to a special case in which G has a large normal p-subgroup satisfying several restrictions. In 1983, R. Niles and G. Glauberman showed that every finite p-group S of nilpotence class at least 4 must have two characteristic subgroups S1 and S2 such that, whenever S is a Sylow p-subgroup of a group G as above, S1 or S2 is normal in G. In this paper, we prove a similar theorem with a more explicit choice of S1 and S2.

In this paper we prove that every nonabelian finite 2-group with a cyclic commutator subgroup has a noninner automorphism of order two fixing either Φ(G) or Z(G) elementwise. This, together with a result of Peter Schmid on regular p-groups, extends our result to the class of nonabelian finite p-groups with a cyclic commutator subgroup.

Let G be a nonabelian finite p-group of order pm. A long-standing conjecture asserts that G admits a noninner automorphism of order p. In this paper we prove the validity of the conjecture if exp (G)=pm−2. We also show that if G is a finite p-group of maximal class, then G has at least p(p−1)noninner automorphisms of order p which fix Φ(G) elementwise.

The unsolved problem of whether there exists a positive constant $c$ such that the number $k(G)$ of conjugacy classes in any finite group $G$ satisfies $k(G) \geq c \log _{2}|G|$ has attracted attention for many years. Deriving bounds on $k(G)$ from (that is, reducing the problem to) lower bounds on $k(N)$ and $k(G/N)$, $N\trianglelefteq G$, plays a critical role. Recently Keller proved the best lower bound known for solvable groups:

\[ k(G)\gt c_{0} \frac {\log _{2}|G|} {\log _{2} \log _{2} |G|}\quad (|G|\geq 4) \]

$k(G/N) \geq \beta [G : N]^{\alpha }$

$k(G/N) \geq \beta (\log [G : N])^{t}$

$G$

$N$

$k(N)$

$k(G)$

Let G be a finite p-solvable group. We describe the structure of the p-complements of G when the set of p-regular conjugacy classes has exactly three class sizes. For instance, when the set of p-regular class sizes of G is {1, pa, pam} or {1, m, pam} with (m, p) = 1, then we show that m = qb for some prime q and the structure of the p-complements of G is determined.

We consider classifying spaces of a family of p-groups and prove that mod p cohomology enriched with Bockstein spectral sequences determines their homotopy type among p-completed CW-complexes.

In a recent article [K. H. Hofmann and F. G. Russo, ‘The probability that $x$ and $y$ commute in a compact group’, Math. Proc. Cambridge Phil Soc., to appear] we calculated for a compact group $G$ the probability $d(G)$ that two randomly selected elements $x, y\in G$ satisfy $xy=yx$, and we discussed the remarkable consequences on the structure of $G$ which follow from the assumption that $d(G)$ is positive. In this note we consider two natural numbers $m$ and $n$ and the probability $d_{m,n}(G)$ that for two randomly selected elements $x, y\in G$ the relation $x^my^n=y^nx^m$ holds. The situation is more complicated whenever $n,m\gt 1$. If $G$ is a compact Lie group and if its identity component $G_0$ is abelian, then it follows readily that $d_{m,n}(G)$ is positive. We show here that the following condition suffices for the converse to hold in an arbitrary compact group $G$: for any nonopen closed subgroup $H$ of $G$, the sets $\{g\in G: g^k\in H\}$ for both $k=m$ and $k=n$ have Haar measure $0$. Indeed, we show that if a compact group $G$ satisfies this condition and if $d_{m,n}(G)\gt 0$, then the identity component of $G$is abelian.