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25 - Nilpotent quotient algorithms

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 March 2012

I.D. MacDonald
Affiliation:
University of South Carolina U.S.A.
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Summary

Four variants of the original nilpotent quotient algorithm for groups are described. All have significant advantages over the versions currently in use.

INTRODUCTION

The coset enumeration and nilpotent quotient algorithms are almost the only group-theoretical algorithms which lend themselves to machine computation. In this note we consider only the NQA. The first paper written on the NQA was [2], and this opened up an entirely new field of study. The success of the NQA may be gauged from the number of papers featuring it which have subsequently appeared. They are too many to list.

Computer technology has greatly advanced in the 15 years or so since the original NQA program was developed. In particular fast access to random entries in very large arrays is not the problem it once was. This suggests that a search for new algorithms, or at least for variants of old ones, designed to take advantage of modern facilities, might be a good idea.

We shall describe four new, closely related variants of the NQA. The last three have been successfully programmed in PASCAL. It seems best to follow the order of actual development in their description, for ease of exposition; in addition to giving practical improvements in NQA implementations, they offer insight into how and why the NQA works.

All four new variants possess the following advantages.

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Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 1987

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