A note on extremely primitive affine groups

Let G be a finite primitive permutation group on a set $$\Omega $$ Ω with non-trivial point stabilizer $$G_{\alpha }$$ G α . We say that G is extremely primitive if $$G_{\alpha }$$ G α acts primitively on each of its orbits in $$\Omega {\setminus } \{\alpha \}$$ Ω \ { α } . In earlier work, Mann, Praeger, and Seress have proved that every extremely primitive group is either almost simple or of affine type and they have classified the affine groups up to the possibility of at most finitely many exceptions. More recently, the almost simple extremely primitive groups have been completely determined. If one assumes Wall’s conjecture on the number of maximal subgroups of almost simple groups, then the results of Mann et al. show that it just remains to eliminate an explicit list of affine groups in order to complete the classification of the extremely primitive groups. Mann et al. have conjectured that none of these affine candidates are extremely primitive and our main result confirms this conjecture.

Some generalized characters associated to a transitive permutation group

Let G be a finite transitive permutation group of degree n, with point stabilizer {H\neq 1} and permutation character π. For every positive integer t, we consider the generalized character {\psi_{t}=\rho_{G}-t(\pi-1_{G})}, where {\rho_{G}} is the regular character of G and {1_{G}} the 1-character. We give necessary and sufficient conditions on t (and G) which guarantee that {\psi_{t}} is a character of G. A necessary condition is that {t\leq\min\{n-1,\lvert H\rvert\}}, and it turns out that {\psi_{t}} is a character of G for {t=n-1} resp. {t=\lvert H\rvert} precisely when G is 2-transitive resp. a Frobenius group.

Stability for Intersecting Families in PGL(2,q)

We consider the action of the $2$-dimensional projective general linear group $PGL(2,q)$ on the projective line $PG(1,q)$. A subset $S$ of $PGL(2,q)$ is said to be an intersecting family if for every $g_1,g_2 \in S$, there exists $\alpha \in PG(1,q)$ such that $\alpha^{g_1}= \alpha^{g_2}$. It was proved by Meagher and Spiga that the intersecting families of maximum size in $PGL(2,q)$ are precisely the cosets of point stabilizers. We prove that if an intersecting family $S \subset PGL(2,q)$ has size close to the maximum then it must be "close" in structure to a coset of a point stabilizer. This phenomenon is known as stability. We use this stability result proved here to show that if the size of $S$ is close enough to the maximum then $S$ must be contained in a coset of a point stabilizer.

Transitive permutation groups with trivial four point stabilizers

In this paper we analyze the structure of transitive permutation groups that have trivial four point stabilizers, but some nontrivial three point stabilizer. In particular, we give a complete, detailed classification when the group is simple or quasisimple. This paper is motivated by questions concerning the relationship between fixed points of automorphisms of Riemann surfaces and Weierstraß points and is a continuation of the authors' earlier work.

On locally graded barely transitive groups

We show that a barely transitive group is totally imprimitive if and only if it is locally graded. Moreover, we obtain the description of a barely transitive group G for the case G has a cyclic subgroup 〈x〉 which intersects non-trivially with all subgroups and for the case a point stabilizer H of G has a subgroup H 1 of finite index in H satisfying the identity χ(H 1) = 1, where χ is a multi-linear commutator of weight w.

Distinguishability of Infinite Groups and Graphs

The distinguishing number of a group $G$ acting faithfully on a set $V$ is the least number of colors needed to color the elements of $V$ so that no non-identity element of the group preserves the coloring. The distinguishing number of a graph is the distinguishing number of its automorphism group acting on its vertex set. A connected graph $\Gamma$ is said to have connectivity 1 if there exists a vertex $\alpha \in V\Gamma$ such that $\Gamma \setminus \{\alpha\}$ is not connected. For $\alpha \in V$, an orbit of the point stabilizer $G_\alpha$ is called a suborbit of $G$.We prove that every nonnull, primitive graph with infinite diameter and countably many vertices has distinguishing number $2$. Consequently, any nonnull, infinite, primitive, locally finite graph is $2$-distinguishable; so, too, is any infinite primitive permutation group with finite suborbits. We also show that all denumerable vertex-transitive graphs of connectivity 1 and all Cartesian products of connected denumerable graphs of infinite diameter have distinguishing number $2$. All of our results follow directly from a versatile lemma which we call The Distinct Spheres Lemma.

ON THE BASE SIZE OF A TRANSITIVE GROUP WITH SOLVABLE POINT STABILIZER

We prove that the base size of a transitive group G with solvable point stabilizer and with trivial solvable radical is not greater than k provided the same statement holds for the group of G-induced automorphisms of each nonabelian composition factor of G.