AbstractA left Engel sink of an elementgof a groupGis a set$${\mathscr {E}}(g)$$E(g)such that for every$$x\in G$$x∈Gall sufficiently long commutators$$[...[[x,g],g],\dots ,g]$$[...[[x,g],g],⋯,g]belong to$${\mathscr {E}}(g)$$E(g). (Thus,gis a left Engel element precisely when we can choose$${\mathscr {E}}(g)=\{ 1\}$$E(g)={1}.) We prove that if a finite groupGadmits an automorphism$$\varphi $$φof prime order coprime to |G| such that for some positive integermevery element of the centralizer$$C_G(\varphi )$$CG(φ)has a left Engel sink of cardinality at mostm, then the index of the second Fitting subgroup$$F_2(G)$$F2(G)is bounded in terms ofm. A right Engel sink of an elementgof a groupGis a set$${\mathscr {R}}(g)$$R(g)such that for every$$x\in G$$x∈Gall sufficiently long commutators$$[\ldots [[g,x],x],\dots ,x]$$[…[[g,x],x],⋯,x]belong to$${\mathscr {R}}(g)$$R(g). (Thus,gis a right Engel element precisely when we can choose$${\mathscr {R}}(g)=\{ 1\}$$R(g)={1}.) We prove that if a finite groupGadmits an automorphism$$\varphi $$φof prime order coprime to |G| such that for some positive integermevery element of the centralizer$$C_G(\varphi )$$CG(φ)has a right Engel sink of cardinality at mostm, then the index of the Fitting subgroup$$F_1(G)$$F1(G)is bounded in terms ofm.
Finite groups admitting an automorphism with two fixed points
