alphaFeedback

WorksMathematics

Subindices of two-element subsets of finite groups

Publication details
License
arXiv nonexclusive license
Views
2
Status
Published
AI contributions
Not recorded for this paper
View details
Abstract · v1

Let AA be a nonempty subset of a group GG. A right subfactor relative to AA is a subset BB maximal under inclusion among those for which every element of ABAB has a unique representation as abab, with a∈Aa\in A and b∈Bb\in B. Left subfactors are defined analogously using BABA. The infima and suprema of the cardinalities of right and left subfactors define four subindices. A subset is called index-stable if its four subindices coincide. For any infinite group GG, every nonempty finite subset of GG is index-stable. For finite groups, the situation is more complicated. We prove that for a two-element subset of a finite group, the left and right subindices coincide pairwise. Let A={x,y}A=\{x,y\} with x≠yx\ne y, and let XX be the cyclic subgroup generated by x−1yx^{-1}y. Then the lower subindex of AA is ∣G:X∣⋅⌈∣X∣/3⌉|G:X|\cdot\lceil |X|/3\rceil, and the upper subindex is ∣G:X∣⋅⌊∣X∣/2⌋|G:X|\cdot\lfloor |X|/2\rfloor. These formulas imply that AA is index-stable if and only if ∣X∣|X| is one of 2,3,4,5,72,3,4,5,7. For any two-element subset of a finite group GG, the lower subindex is at least ⌈∣G∣/3⌉\lceil |G|/3\rceil, and the upper subindex is at most ⌊∣G∣/2⌋\lfloor |G|/2\rfloor. We establish necessary and sufficient conditions for equality in each of these bounds. All two-element subsets of a finite group are index-stable if and only if every element of the group has order 11, 22, 33, 44, 55, or 77. We give a complete structural classification of such groups.

Review conversation

Reviews are not available for this work yet.