Let $G$ be a finite group. We denote by ${\it\nu}(G)$ the probability that two randomly chosen elements of $G$ generate a nilpotent subgroup and by $\text{Nil}_{G}(x)$ the set of elements $y\in G$ such that $\langle x,y\rangle$ is a nilpotent subgroup. A group $G$ is called an ${\mathcal{N}}$-group if $\text{Nil}_{G}(x)$ is a subgroup of $G$ for all $x\in G$. We prove that if $G$ is an ${\mathcal{N}}$-group with ${\it\nu}(G)>\frac{1}{12}$, then $G$ is soluble. Also, we classify semisimple ${\mathcal{N}}$-groups with ${\it\nu}(G)=\frac{1}{12}$.

Motivated by a problem of characterising a family of Cayley graphs, we study a class of finite groups $G$ which behave similarly to elementary abelian $p$-groups with $p$ prime, that is, there exists a subgroup $N$ such that all elements of $G\setminus N$ are conjugate or inverse-conjugate under $\mathsf{Aut}(G)$. It is shown that such groups correspond to complete multipartite graphs which are normal edge-transitive Cayley graphs.

Groups of infinite rank in which every subgroup is either normal or contranormal are characterised in terms of their subgroups of infinite rank.

We give a sufficient condition under which a semigroup is nonfinitely based. As an application, we show that a certain variety is nonfinitely based, and we indicate the additional analysis (to be presented in a forthcoming paper), which shows that this example is a new limit variety of aperiodic monoids.

Li et al. [‘On finite self-complementary metacirculants’, J. Algebraic Combin.40 (2014), 1135–1144] proved that the automorphism group of a self-complementary metacirculant is either soluble or has $\text{A}_{5}$ as the only insoluble composition factor, and gave a construction of such graphs with insoluble automorphism groups (which are the first examples of self-complementary graphs with this property). In this paper, we will prove that each simple group is a subgroup (so is a section) of the automorphism groups of infinitely many self-complementary vertex-transitive graphs. The proof involves a construction of such graphs. We will also determine all simple sections of the automorphism groups of self-complementary vertex-transitive graphs of $4$-power-free order.

We prove that if $G_{P}$ is a finitely constrained group of binary rooted tree automorphisms (a group binary tree subshift of finite type) defined by an essential pattern group $P$ of pattern size $d$, $d\geq 2$, and if $G_{P}$ has maximal Hausdorff dimension (equal to $1-1/2^{d-1}$), then $G_{P}$ is not topologically finitely generated. We describe precisely all essential pattern groups $P$ that yield finitely constrained groups with maximal Hausdorff dimension. For a given size $d$, $d\geq 2$, there are exactly $2^{d-1}$ such pattern groups and they are all maximal in the group of automorphisms of the finite rooted regular tree of depth $d$.

We study the classical limit of a family of irreducible representations of the quantum affine algebra associated to $\mathfrak{sl}_{n+1}$. After a suitable twist, the limit is a module for $\mathfrak{sl}_{n+1}[t]$, i.e., for the maximal standard parabolic subalgebra of the affine Lie algebra. Our first result is about the family of prime representations introduced in Hernandez and Leclerc (Duke Math. J.154 (2010), 265–341; Symmetries, Integrable Systems and Representations, Springer Proceedings in Mathematics & Statitics, Volume 40, pp. 175–193 (2013)), in the context of a monoidal categorification of cluster algebras. We show that these representations specialize (after twisting) to $\mathfrak{sl}_{n+1}[t]$-stable prime Demazure modules in level-two integrable highest-weight representations of the classical affine Lie algebra. It was proved in Chari et al. (arXiv:1408.4090) that a stable Demazure module is isomorphic to the fusion product of stable prime Demazure modules. Our next result proves that such a fusion product is the limit of the tensor product of the corresponding irreducible prime representations of quantum affine $\mathfrak{sl}_{n+1}$.

The work of L. G. (Laci) Kovács (1936–2013) gave us a deeper understanding of permutation groups, especially in the O’Nan–Scott theory of primitive groups. We review his contribution to this field.

Primitive prime divisors play an important role in group theory and number theory. We study a certain number-theoretic quantity, called $\unicode[STIX]{x1D6F7}_{n}^{\ast }(q)$ , which is closely related to the cyclotomic polynomial $\unicode[STIX]{x1D6F7}_{n}(x)$ and to primitive prime divisors of $q^{n}-1$ . Our definition of $\unicode[STIX]{x1D6F7}_{n}^{\ast }(q)$ is novel, and we prove it is equivalent to the definition given by Hering. Given positive constants $c$ and $k$ , we provide an algorithm for determining all pairs $(n,q)$ with $\unicode[STIX]{x1D6F7}_{n}^{\ast }(q)\leq cn^{k}$ . This algorithm is used to extend (and correct) a result of Hering and is useful for classifying certain families of subgroups of finite linear groups.

Let G be an additive abelian group, let n ⩾ 1 be an integer, let S be a sequence over G of length |S| ⩾ n + 1, and let ${\mathsf h}$(S) denote the maximum multiplicity of a term in S. Let Σn(S) denote the set consisting of all elements in G which can be expressed as the sum of terms from a subsequence of S having length n. In this paper, we prove that either ng ∈ Σn(S) for every term g in S whose multiplicity is at least ${\mathsf h}$(S) − 1 or |Σn(S)| ⩾ min{n + 1, |S| − n + | supp (S)| − 1}, where |supp(S)| denotes the number of distinct terms that occur in S. When G is finite cyclic and n = |G|, this confirms a conjecture of Y. O. Hamidoune from 2003.

We prove the assertion in the title by conducting an exhaustive computational search for subgroups isomorphic to $\text{PSL}_{2}(13)$ and containing elements in class $13B$.

Supplementary materials are available with this article.

We extend to soluble $\text{FC}^{\ast }$-groups, the class of generalised FC-groups introduced in de Giovanni et al. [‘Groups with restricted conjugacy classes’, Serdica Math. J. 28(3) (2002), 241–254], the characterisation of finite soluble T-groups obtained recently in Kaplan [‘On T-groups, supersolvable groups, and maximal subgroups’, Arch. Math. (Basel) 96(1) (2011), 19–25].

In this paper, we investigate strongly regular congruences on $E$-inversive semigroups $S$. We describe the complete lattice homomorphism of strongly regular congruences, which is a generalization of an open problem of Pastijn and Petrich for regular semigroups. An abstract characterization of left and right traces for strongly regular congruences is given. The strongly regular (sr) congruences on $E$-inversive semigroups $S$ are described by means of certain strongly regular congruence triples $({\it\gamma},K,{\it\delta})$ consisting of certain sr-normal equivalences ${\it\gamma}$ and ${\it\delta}$ on $E(S)$ and a certain sr-normal subset $K$ of $S$. Further, we prove that each strongly regular congruence on $E$-inversive semigroups $S$ is uniquely determined by its associated strongly regular congruence triple.

Let $R$ be a commutative ring, let $F$ be a locally compact non-archimedean field of finite residual field $k$ of characteristic $p$, and let $\mathbf{G}$ be a connected reductive $F$-group. We show that the pro-$p$-Iwahori Hecke $R$-algebra of $G=\mathbf{G}(F)$ admits a presentation similar to the Iwahori–Matsumoto presentation of the Iwahori Hecke algebra of a Chevalley group, and alcove walk bases satisfying Bernstein relations. This was previously known only for a $F$-split group $\mathbf{G}$.

This note completes the proof of the structure theorem for pp-matroid groups which was stated in our earlier paper J. Krempa and A. Stocka [‘On sets of pp-generators of finite groups’, Bull. Aust. Math. Soc.91 (2015), 241–249].

Let $G$ be a reductive algebraic group over an algebraically closed field of positive characteristic, $G_{1}$ the Frobenius kernel of $G$, and $T$ a maximal torus of $G$. We show that the parabolically induced $G_{1}T$-Verma modules of singular highest weights are all rigid, determine their Loewy length, and describe their Loewy structure using the periodic Kazhdan–Lusztig $P$- and $Q$-polynomials. We assume that the characteristic of the field is sufficiently large that, in particular, Lusztig’s conjecture for the irreducible $G_{1}T$-characters holds.

We give a diagrammatic presentation for the category of Soergel bimodules for the dihedral group $W$. The (two-colored) Temperley–Lieb category is embedded inside this category as the degree $0$ morphisms between color-alternating objects. The indecomposable Soergel bimodules are the images of Jones–Wenzl projectors. When $W$ is infinite, the parameter $q$ of the Temperley–Lieb algebra may be generic, yielding a quantum version of the geometric Satake equivalence for $\mathfrak{sl}_{2}$. When $W$ is finite, $q$ must be specialized to an appropriate root of unity, and the negligible Jones–Wenzl projector yields the Soergel bimodule for the longest element of $W$.

Let $\mathbf{G}$ be the connected reductive group of type $E_{7,3}$ over $\mathbb{Q}$ and $\mathfrak{T}$ be the corresponding symmetric domain in $\mathbb{C}^{27}$. Let ${\rm\Gamma}=\mathbf{G}(\mathbb{Z})$ be the arithmetic subgroup defined by Baily. In this paper, for any positive integer $k\geqslant 10$, we will construct a (non-zero) holomorphic cusp form on $\mathfrak{T}$ of weight $2k$ with respect to ${\rm\Gamma}$ from a Hecke cusp form in $S_{2k-8}(\text{SL}_{2}(\mathbb{Z}))$. We follow Ikeda’s idea of using Siegel’s Eisenstein series, their Fourier–Jacobi expansions, and the compatible family of Eisenstein series.

We investigate conjectures and questions regarding topological phenomena related to free actions on homotopy spheres and present some affirmative answers.

A subset $X$ of a finite group $G$ is a set of pairwise noncommuting elements if $xy\neq yx$ for all $x\neq y\in X$. If $|X|\geq |Y|$ for any other subset $Y$ of pairwise noncommuting elements, then $X$ is called a maximal subset of pairwise noncommuting elements and the size of such a set is denoted by ${\it\omega}(G)$. In a recent article by Azad et al. [‘Maximal subsets of pairwise noncommuting elements of some finite $p$-groups’, Bull. Iran. Math. Soc.39(1) (2013), 187–192], the value of ${\it\omega}(G)$ is computed for certain $p$-groups $G$. In the present paper, our aim is to generalise these results and find ${\it\omega}(G)$ for some more $p$-groups of interest.