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.

A generalization of the Pastijn product is introduced so that, on the level of e-varieties and pseudoe-varieties, this product and the regular semidirect product by completely simple semigroups ‘almost always’ coincide. This is applied to give a model of the bifree objects in every e-variety formed as a regular semidirect product of a variety of inverse semigroups by a variety of completely simple semigroups that is not a group variety.

Finite innately transitive permutation groups include all finite quasiprimitive and primitive permutation groups. In this paper, results in the theory of quasiprimitive and primitive groups are generalised to innately transitive groups, and in particular, we extend results of Praeger and Shalev. Thus we show that innately transitive groups possess parameter bounds which are similar to those for primitive groups. We also classify the innately transitive types of quotient actions of innately transitive groups.

The conjugacy classes of so-called special involutions parameterize the constituents of the action of a finite Coxeter group on the cohomology of the complement of its complexified hyperplane arrangement. In this note we give a short intrinsic characterisation of special involutions in terms of so-called bulky parabolic subgroups.

A subgroup H of a finite group G is said to be c–supplemented in G if there exists a subgroup K of G such that G = HK and H∩K is contained in coreG (H). In this paper some results for finite p–nilpotent groups are given based on some subgroups of Pc–supplemented in G, where p is a prime factor of the order of G and P is a Sylow p–subgroup of G. We also give some applications of these results.

A subgroup H of a finite G is said to be c-normal in G if there exists a normal subgroup N of G such that G = HN with H ∩ N ≤ HG = CoreG(H). We are interested in studying the influence of the c–normality of certain subgroups of prime power order on the structure of finite groups.

This paper gives a characterisation of finite supersoluble groups of Wielandt length two of order coprime to six.

The Archimedean components of triangular norms (which turn the closed unit interval into anabelian, totally ordered semigroup with neutral element 1) are studied, in particular their extension to triangular norms, and some construction methods for Archimedean components are given. The triangular norms which are uniquely determined by their Archimedean components are characterized. Using ordinal sums and additive generators, new types of left-continuous triangular norms are constructed.

In this note we characterize the abelian groups G which have two different proper subgroups N and M such that the subgroup lattice L(G)=[0, M]∪ [N, G] is the union of these intervals.