The partial automorphism monoid of an inverse semigroup is an inverse monoid consisting of all isomorphisms between its inverse subsemigroups. We prove that a tightly connected fundamental inverse semigroup S with no isolated nontrivial subgroups is lattice determined ‘modulo semilattices’ and if T is an inverse semigroup whose partial automorphism monoid is isomorphic to that of S, then either S and T are isomorphic or they are dually isomorphic chains relative to the natural partial order; a similar result holds if T is any semigroup and the inverse monoids consisting of all isomorphisms between subsemigroups of S and T, respectively, are isomorphic. Moreover, for these results to hold, the conditions that S be tightly connected and have no isolated nontrivial subgroups are essential.

An automorphism group of a graph is said to be s-regular if it acts regularly on the set of s-arcs in the graph. A graph is s-regular if its full automorphism group is s-regular. For a connected cubic symmetric graph X of order 2pn for an odd prime p, we show that if p ≠ 5, 7 then every Sylow p-subgroup of the full automorphism group Aut(X) of X is normal, and if p ≠3 then every s-regular subgroup of Aut(X) having a normal Sylow p-subgroup contains an (s − 1)-regular subgroup for each 1 ≦ s ≦ 5. As an application, we show that every connected cubic symmetric graph of order 2pn is a Cayley graph if p > 5 and we classify the s-regular cubic graphs of order 2p2 for each 1≦ s≦ 5 and each prime p. as a continuation of the authors' classification of 1-regular cubic graphs of order 2p2. The same classification of those of order 2p is also done.

Palindromes are those reduced words of free products of groups that coincide with their reverse words. We prove that a free product of groups G has infinite palindromic width, provided that G is not the free product of two cyclic groups of order two (Theorem 2.4). This means that there is no uniform bound k such that every element of G is a product of at most k palindromes. Earlier, the similar fact was established for non-abelian free groups. The proof of Theorem 2.4 makes use of the ideas by Rhemtulla developed for the study of the widths of verbal subgroups of free products.

Let G be a finite p-group, and let M(G) be the subgroup generated by the non-central conjugacy classes of G of minimal size. We prove that this subgroup has class at most 3. A similar result is noted for nilpotent Lie algebras.

Let (M, G) be a pair of groups, in which M is a normal subgroup of G such that G/M and M/Z(M, G) are of orders pm and pn. respectively. In 1998, Ellis proved that the commutator subgroup [M, G] has order at most pn(n + 2 m−1)/2.

In the present paper by assuming /[M, G] = pn(n+2m−1)/2, we determine the pair (M, G). An upper bound is obtained for the Schur multiplier of the pair (M, G), which generalizes the work of Green (1956).

It is shown that the complex semigroup algebra of a free monoid of rank at least two is *-primitive, where * denotes the involution on the algebra induced by word-reversal on the monoid.

In this paper we determine the smallest equivalence relation on a multialgebra for which the factor multialgebra is a universal algebra satisfying a given identity. We also establish an important property for the factor multialgebra (of a multialgebra) modulo this relation.

To any given balanced semigroup identity U ≈ W a number of polyhedral convex cones are associated. In this setting an algorithm is proposed which determines whether the given identity is satisfied in the bicylic semigroup or in the semigroup . The semigroups BC and E deserve our attention because a semigroup variety contains a simple semigroup which is not completely simple (respectively, which is idempotent free) if and only if this variety contains BC (respectively, E). Therefore, for a given identity U ≈ W it is decidable whether or not the variety determined by U ≈ W contains a simple semigroup which is not completely simple (respectively, which is idempotent free).

A subgroup H of a group G is said to be permutable if HX = XH for each subgroup X of G, and the group G is called quasihamiltonian if all its subgroups are permutable. We shall say that G is a Q F-group if every subgroup H of G contains a subgroup K of finite index which is permutable in G. It is proved that every locally finite Q F-group contains a quasihamiltonian subgroup of finite index. In the proof of this result we use a theorem by Buckley, Lennox, Neumann, Smith and Wiegold concerning the corresponding problem when permutable subgroups are replaced by normal subgroups: if G is a locally finite group such that H/HG is finite for every subgroup H, then G contains an abelian subgroup of finite index.

In this article, a Blackburn group refers to a finite non-Dedekind group for which the intersection of all nonnormal subgroups is not the trivial subgroup. By completing the arguments of M. Hertweck, we show that all conjugacy class preserving automorphisms of Blackburn groups are inner automorphisms.

Valuated Butler groups of finite rank are investigated. The valuated B2-groups are both epic images and pure subgroups of completely decomposable valuated groups of finite rank (Theorem 3.1). However, there are fundamental changes in the theory of Butler groups when valuations are involved. We introduce valuated B1-groups and show that they are valuated B2-groups. Surprisingly, valuated B2-groups of rank greater than 1 need not be valuated B1 -groups, unless they carry a special kind valuation, see Theorem 7.1. Theorem 6.5 gives a full characterization of valuated B1 -groups of finite rank, generalizing Bican's characterization of Butler groups.

Let F be a field of characteristic p and G a group containing at least one element of order p. It is proved that the group of units of the group algebra FG is a bounded Engel group if and only if FG is a bounded Engel algebra, and that this is the case if and only if G is nilpotent and has a normal subgroup H such that both the factor group G/H and the commutator subgroup H′ are finite p–groups.

Let M be a reductive algebraic monoid with zero and unit group G. We obtain a description of the submonoid generated by the idempotents of M. In particular, we find necessary and sufficient conditions for M\G to be idempotent generated.

We construct the freest idempotent-pure expansion of an inverse semigroup, generalizing an expansion of Margolis and Meakin for the group case. We also generalize the Birget-Rhodes prefix expansion to inverse semigroups with an application to partial actions of inverse semigroups. In the process of generalizing the latter expansion, we are led to a new class of idempotent-pure homomorphisms which we term F-morphisms. These play the same role in the theory of idempotent-pure homomorphisms that F-inverse monoids play in the theory of E-unitary inverse semigroups.

Various lattices of subgroups of a finite transitive permutation group G can be used to define a set of ‘basic’ permutation groups associated with G that are analogues of composition factors for abstract finite groups. In particular G can be embedded in an iterated wreath product of a chain of its associated basic permutation groups. The basic permutation groups corresponding to the lattice L of all subgroups of G containing a given point stabiliser are a set of primitive permutation groups. We introduce two new subgroup lattices contained in L, called the seminormal subgroup lattice and the subnormal subgroup lattice. For these lattices the basic permutation groups are quasiprimitive and innately transitive groups, respectively.

The aim of this work is to offer a new characterization of the Hilbert symbol Q*p from the commutator of a certain central extension of groups. We obtain a characterization for Q*p (p≠2) and a different one for Q*2.

Hypercentrally embedded subgroups of finite groups can be characterized in terms of permutability as those subgroups which permute with all pronormal subgroups of the group. Despite that, in general, hypercentrally embedded subgroups do not permute with the intersection of pronormal subgroups, in this paper we prove that they permute with certain relevant types of subgroups which can be described as intersections of pronormal subgroups. We prove that hypercentrally embedded subgroups permute with subgroups of prefrattini type, which are intersections of maximal subgroups, and with F-normalizers, for a saturated formation F. In the soluble universe, F-normalizers can be described as intersection of some pronormal subgroups of the group.

We define a notion of conjugacy in singular Artin moniods, and solve the corresponding conjugacy problem for finite types. We sgiw that this definition is appropriate to describe type (1) singular Markov moves on singular braids. Parabolic submonoids of singular Artin monoids are defined and, in finite type, are shown to be singular Artin monoids. Solutions to conjugacy-type problems of parabolic submonoids are described. Geometric objects defined by Fenn, Rolfsen and Zhu, called (j, k)-bands, are algebraically characterised, and a procedure is given which determines when a word represents a (j, k)-band.

Suppose that the finite group G acts faithfully and irreducibly on the finite G-module V of characteristic p not dividing |G|. The well-known k(GV)-problem states that in this situation, if k(G V) is the number of conjugacy classes of the semidirect product GV, then k(GV) ≤ |V|. For p—solvable groups, this is equivalent to Brauer's famous k(B)-problem. In 1996, Robinson and Thompson proved the k(GV) problem for large p. This ultimately led to a complete proof of the k(GV)-problem. In this paper, we present a new proof of the k(G V)-problem for large p.

For a permutation group H on an infinite set X and a transformation f of X, let 〈f: H〉 = 〈{hfh-1:h є; H}〉 be a group closure of f. We find necessary and sufficient conditions for distinct normal subgroups of the symmetric group on X and a one-to-one transformation f of X to generate distinct group closures of f. Amongst these group closures we characterize those that are left simple, left cancellative, idempotent-free semigroups, whose congruence lattice forms a chain and whose congruences are preserved under automorphisms.