Abstract Root Subgroups and Simple Groups of Lie-Type: 95 (Monographs in Mathematics, 95) - Hardcover

Timmesfeld, Franz G.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 3764365323 ISBN 13: 9783764365325

Publisher: Birkhäuser, 2001

Synopsis

It was already in 1964 [Fis66] when B. Fischer raised the question: Which finite groups can be generated by a conjugacy class D of involutions, the product of any two of which has order 1, 2 or 37 Such a class D he called a class of 3-tmnspositions of G. This question is quite natural, since the class of transpositions of a symmetric group possesses this property. Namely the order of the product (ij)(kl) is 1, 2 or 3 according as {i,j} n {k,l} consists of 2,0 or 1 element. In fact, if I{i,j} n {k,I}1 = 1 and j = k, then (ij)(kl) is the 3-cycle (ijl). After the preliminary papers [Fis66] and [Fis64] he succeeded in [Fis71J, [Fis69] to classify all finite "nearly" simple groups generated by such a class of 3-transpositions, thereby discovering three new finite simple groups called M(22), M(23) and M(24). But even more important than his classification theorem was the fact that he originated a new method in the study of finite groups, which is called "internal geometric analysis" by D. Gorenstein in his book: Finite Simple Groups, an Introduction to their Classification. In fact D. Gorenstein writes that this method can be regarded as second in importance for the classification of finite simple groups only to the local group-theoretic analysis created by J. Thompson.

About this title

Review

"The book is well written: the style is concise but not hard and most of the book is not too difficult to read for a graduate student. Some parts of it are certainly suited for a class."

--Mathematical Reviews

Synopsis

The present book is the first to systematically treat the theory of groups generated by a conjugacy class of subgroups, satisfying certain generational properties on pairs of subgroups. For finite groups, this theory has been developed in the 1970s mainly by M. Aschbacher, B. Fischer and the author. It was extended to arbitrary groups in the 1990s by the author. The theory of abstract root subgroups is an important tool to study and classify simple classical and Lie-type groups. It is strongly related to the theory of root groups on buildings developed by J. Tits, which in turn extends the theory of root subgroups of Chevalley groups. The book is of interest to mathematicians working in different areas such as finite group theory, classical groups, algebraic and Lie-type groups, buildings and generalized polygons. It will also be welcomed by the graduate student in any of the above subjects, as well as the researcher working in any of these areas. Parts of it can also be used for graduate classes. Large parts of the book are self-contained and accessible with reasonable knowledge in abstract group theory and classical groups.

Its main purpose is to give complete and partially new proofs of results that are quite unaccessible in the literature.

Edition details

• Publisher: Birkhäuser
• Publication date: 2001
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 3764365323
• ISBN 13: 9783764365325
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 402