In this paper a technique for constructing Fitting Classes is applied to certain groups of nilpotent length three which have non-unique minimal normal subgroups. A characterisation of the minimal Fitting Class of some of these groups is also given.

In 1980, McCaughan and Stonehewer showed that a finite soluble group in which every subnormal subgroup has defect at most two has derived length at most nine and Fitting length at most five, and gave an example of derived length five and Fitting length four. In 1984 Casolo showed that derived length five and Fitting length four are best possible bounds.

In this paper we show that for groups of odd order the bounds can be improved. A group of odd order with every subnormal subgroup of defect at most two has derived and Fitting length at most three, and these bounds are best possible.

We prove that the split integral group ring of a finite p-solvable group of finite representation type has a structure analogous to that of the p-modular semisimple deformation. The split integral deformation can be put in the same form as the p-modular deformation by an appropriate substitution for the parameter T. As an application we derive a simple formula for the matrix units in the semisimple group algebra over a nonmodular prime.

A version of the Dade-Cline equivalence from Clifford theory is proved for non-normal subgroups of a finite group in the context of a synthesis of a number of equivalences that arise in the representation theory of groups and algebras.

Let G be a (not necessarily finite) group and ρ a finite dimensional faithful irreducible representation of G over an arbitrary field; write ρ¯ for ρ viewed as a projective representation. Suppose that ρ is not induced (from any proper subgroup) and that ρ¯ is not a tensor product (of projective representations of dimension greater than 1). Let K be a noncentral subgroup which centralizes all its conjugates in G except perhaps itself, write H for the normalizer of K in G, and suppose that some irreducible constituent, σ say, of the restriction p↓K is absolutely irreducible. It is proved that then (ρ is absolutely irreducible and) ρ¯ is tensor induced from a projective representation of H, namely from a tensor factor π of ρ¯↓H such that π↓K = σ¯ and ker π is the centralizer of K in G.

We investigate the identities which hold in the associated Lie rings of groups of prime exponent. The multilinear identities which hold in these Lie rings are known, and it is conjectured that all the identities which hold in these Lie rings are consequences of multilinear ones. This is known to be the case for the associated Lie rings of two generator groups of exponent 5, and we provide some additional avidence for the conjecture by confirming that it also holds true for the associated Lie rings of three generator groups of exponent five.

For a ZG-lattice A, the nth partial free Euler characteristic εn(A) is defined as the infimum of all where F* varies over all free resolutions of A. It is shown that there exists a stably free resolution E* of A which realises εn(A) for all n≥0 and that the function n → εn(A) is ultimately polynomial no residue classes. The existence of E* is established with the help of new invariants σn(A) of A. These are elements in certain image groups of the projective class group of ZG. When ZG allows cancellation, E* is a minimal free resolution and is essentially unique. When A is periodic, E* is ultimately periodic of period a multiple of the projective period of A.

The following question is discussed and evidence for and against it is advanced: is it true that if F is an arbitrary finite subgroup of an arbitrary non-linear simple locally finite group G, then CG(F) is infinite? The following points to an affirmative answer.

Theorem A. Let F be an arbitrary finite subgroup of a non-linear simple locally finite group G. Then there exist subgroups D ◃ C ≤ G such that F centralizes C/D, F∩C ≤ D, and C/D is a direct product of finite alternating groups of unbounded orders. In particular, F centralizes an infinite section of G.

Theorem A is deduced from a “local” version, namely

Theorem B. There exists an integer valued function f(n, r) with the following properties. Let H be a finite group of order at most n, and suppose that H ≤ S, where S is either an alternating group of degree at least f = f(n, r) or a finite simple classical group whose natural projective representation has degree at least f. Then there exist subgroups D ◃ C ≤ S such that (i) [H, C] ≤ D, (ii) H ∩ C ≤ D, (iii) C/D ≅ Alt(r), (iv) D = 1 if S is alternating, and D is a p-group of class at most 2 and exponent dividing p2 if S is a classical group over a field of characteristic p.

The natural “local version” of our main question is however definitely false.

Proposition C. Let p be a given prime. Then there exists a finite group H that can be embedded in infinitely many groups PSL(n, p) as a subgroup with trivial centralizer.

The known characterization of the Mathieu group M12 by the structure of the centralizer of a 2-central involution is based on the application of the theory of exceptional characters and uses in addition a block theoretic result which asserts that a simple group of order |M12| is isomorphic to M12. The details of the proof of the latter result had never been published. We show here that M12 can be handled in a completely elementary and group theoretical way.

We discuss some general properties and limitations of the concept of outer Fitting pairs introduced earlier by the author. We describe an outer Fitting pair as a co-cone in the category of what we call outer groups (roughly speaking the category of groups modulo inner automorphisms). It is shown that generally no universal outer Fitting pair exists, whence this category is not co-complete. Additionally it is shown that if the target group of an outer Fitting pair is finite, then the much more amenable concept of normal Fitting pairs (that is, co-cones in the category of groups) applies.

Let G be a finite group of even order coprime to 3. If G admits a fixed-point-free automorphism group isomorphic to the symmetric group on three letters, then we prove that G is soluble.

Two subgroups ME(G) and MI(G) of the Schur multiplier M(G) of a finite group G are introduced: ME(G) contains those cohomology classes [α] of M(G) for which every element of G is α-regular, and MI(G) consists of those cohomology classes of M(G) which contain a G-invariant cocycle. It is then shown that under suitable circumstances, such as when G has odd order, that each element of MI(G) can be expressed as the product of an element of ME(G) and an element of the image of the inflation homomorphism from M(G/G′) into M(G).

Finite ρ-groups with all of their maximal subgroups isomorphic are studied by means of the coclass. All such groups of coclass I and 2 are determined, while those of coclass 3 are shown to have order at most ρ13. A general bound for the order is given as a function of ρ and the coclass only.

We give presentations for the groups PSL(2, pn), p prime, which show that the deficiency of these groups is bounded below. In particular, for p = 2 where SL(2, 2n) = PSL(2, 2n), we show that these groups have deficiency greater than or equal to – 2. We give deficiency – 1 presentations for direct products of SL(2, 2n) for coprime ni. Certain new efficient presentations are given for certain cases of the groups considered.

We study the characteristic p analogue of M-groups, the so-called Mp-group Generalizing this notion, we also consider the condition that the modular irreducible representations are induced from representations of dimension < p, or even weaker, of dimension not divisible by p.

All subnormal subgroups of hypernormalizing groups have by definition subnormal normalizers. It is shown that finite soluble HN-groups belong to the class of groups of Fitting length three. Finite HN-groups are considered including those with subnormal quotient isomorphic to SL(2,5).

In this note we present a general Jordan-Hölder type theorem for modular lattices and apply it to obtain various (old and new) versions of the Jordan-Hölder Theorem for finite groups.

In this note we introduce a self-centralizing characteristic subgroup, associated with quasinilpotent injectors, of a finite group.

Let G be a finite group, α be a fixed cocycle of G and Proj (G, α) denote the set of irreducible projective characters of G lying over the cocycle α.

Suppose N is a normal subgroup of G. Then the author shows that there exists a G- invariant element of Proj(N, αN) of degree 1 if and only if [α] is an element of the image of the inflation homomorphism from M(G/N) into M(G), where M(G) denotes the Schur multiplier of G. However in many situations one can produce such G-invariant characters where it is not intrinsically obvious that the cocycle could be inflated. Because of this the author obtains a restatement of his original result using the Lyndon-Hochschild-Serre exact sequence of cohomology. This restatement not only resolves the apparent anomalies, but also yields as a corollary the well-known fact that the inflation-restriction sequence is exact when N is perfect.

In this paper we show that a group A is embedded in any finite group G as a subnormal subgroup with low degree of complication, provided that the automorphism group of A satisfies a condition depending on some Fitting class (which coincides with completeness for the Fitting class of all groups). A criterion is given for these groups as to whether they can be embedded subnormally in the commutator subgroup of some finite group or not.