Let R be a ring with 1 and En (R) be the subgroup of GLn(R) generated by the matrices I + reij, r ∈ R, i ≠ j. We prove that the subgroup of consisting of the matrices of shape , where and , is (2, 3, 7)-generated whenever R is finitely generated and n, are large enough.

We exhibit a variation of the Lazard Elimination theorem for free restricted Lie algebras, and apply it to two problems about finite group actions on free Lie algebras over fields of positive characteristic.

The authors describe the structure of the normal closure of a cyclic permutable subgroup of odd order in a finite group.

Comments are made on the following question. Let m, n be positive integers and g a finite group. Suppose that for all choices of a subset of cardinality m and of a subset of cardinality n in g some member of the first commutes with some member of the second. Under what conditions on m, n is the group abelian?

This paper inverstigates the automorphism groups of Cayley graphs of metracyclic p-gorups. A characterization is given of the automorphism groups of Cayley grahs of a metacyclic p-group for odd prime p. In particular, a complete determiniation of the automophism group of a connected Cayley graph with valency less than 2p of a nonabelian metacyclic p-group is obtained as a consequence. In subsequent work, the result of this paper has been applied to solve several problems in graph theory.

We consider finite groups with the property that any proper factor can be generated by a smaller number of elements than the group itself. We study some problems related with the probability of generating these groups with a given number of elements.

The Spelling Theorem of B. B. Newman states that for a one-relator group (a1, … | Wn), any nontrivial word which represents the identity must contain a (cyclic) subword of W±n longer than Wn−1. We provide a new proof of the Spelling Theorem using towers of 2-complexes. We also give a geometric classification of reduced disc diagrams in one-relator groups with torsion. Either the disc diagram has three 2-cells which lie almost entuirly along the bounday, or the disc diagram looks like a ladder. We use this ladder theorem to prove that a large class of one-relator groups with torsion are locally quasiconvex.

Let k be a field of characteristic p > 0, G a finite p-solvable group and pm the highest power of p dividing the order of G. We denote by t(G) the nilpotency index of the (Jacobson) radical of the group algebra k[G]. The groups G with t(G) ≥ pm−1 are already classified. The aim of this paper is to classify the p-solvable groups G with pm−2 < t(G) < pm−1 for p odd.

An inverse semigroup S is said to be meet (join) semidistributive if its lattice (S) of full inverse subsemigroups is meet (join) semidistributive. We show that every meet (join) semidistributive inverse semigroup is in fact distributive.

Let S be a subset of a group G such that S−1 = S. Denote by gr (S) the subgroup of G generated by S, and by ls(g) the length of an element g ∈ gr(S) relative to the set S. Suppose that V is a finite subset of a free group F of countable rank such that the verbal subgroup V (F) is a proper subgroup of F. For an arbitrary group G, denote by (G) the set of values in G of all the words from the set V. In the present paper, for amalgamated products G = A *HB such that A ≠ H and the number of double cosets of B by H is at least three, the infiniteness of the set {ls(g) | g ∈ gr(S)}, where S = (G) ∪ (G)−1, is estabilished.

Properties such as automaticity, growth and decidability are investigated for the class of finitely generated semigroups which have regular sets of unique normal forms. Knowledge obtained is then applied to the task of demonstrating that a class of semigroups derived from free inverse semigroups under certain closure operations is not automatic.

The structure of finite groups in which permutability is transitive (PT-groups) is studied in detail. In particular a finite PT-group has simple chief factors and the p-chief factors fall into at most two isomorphism classes. The structure of finite T-groups, that is, groups in which normality is transitive, is also discussed, as is that of groups generated by subnormal or normal PT-subgroups.

We investigate a locally full HNN extension of an inverse semigroup. A normal form theorem is obtained and applied to the word problem. We construct a tree and show that a maximal subgroup of a locally full HNN extension acts on the tree without inversion. Bass-Serre theory is employed to obtain a group presentation of the maximal subgroup as a fundamental group of a certain graph of groups associated with the D-structure of the original semigroup.

We show that if G is a finitely generated profinite group such that [x1, x2, …, xk] is Engel for any x1, x2, …, xk ∈ G, then γ(G) is locally nilpotent, and if [x1, x2, …, xk] has finite order for any x1, x2, …, xk ∈ G then, under some additional assumptions, γk(G) is locally finite.

Two projective nonsingular complex algebraic curves X and Y defined over the field R of real numbers can be isomorphic while their sets X(R) and Y(R) of R-rational points could be even non homeomorphic. This leads to the count of the number of real forms of a complex algebraic curve X, that is, those nonisomorphic real algebraic curves whose complexifications are isomorphic to X. In this paper we compute, as a function of genus, the maximum number of such real forms that a complex algebraic curve admits.

In a group G, um (G) denotes the subgroup of the elements which normalize every subnormal subgroup of G with defect at most m. The m-Wielandt series of G is then defined in a natural way. G is said to have finite m-Wielandt length if it coincides with a term of its m-Wielandt series. We investigate the structure of infinite groups with finite m-Wielandt length.

This note gives a necessary condition, in terms of graded actions, for an inverse semigroup to be a full amalgam. Under a mild additional hypothesis, the condition becomes sufficient.

One of the converse statements to Lagrange's theorem is that, for each subgroup H of G and any prime factor p of |G: H|, there exists a subgroup K such that H≤K≤G with |K: H | = p. This paper treats integers n such that all groups of order n have this property.

A group G is locally graded if every finitely generated nontrivial subgroup of G has a nontrivial finite image. Let N (2, k)* denote the class of groups in which every infinite subset contains a pair of elements that generate a nilpotent subgroup of class at most k. We show that if G is a finitely generated locally graded N (2, k)*-group, then there is a positive integer c depending only on k such that G/Zc (G) is finite.

We prove that there is no algorithm to determine when an amalgam of finite rings (or semigroups) can be embedded in the class of rings or in the class of finite rings (respectively, in the class of semigroups or in the class of finite semigroups). These results are in marked contrast with the corresponding problems for groups where every amalgam of finite groups can be embedded in a finite group.