Automorphisms Of Finite Groups And Related Topics

Automorphisms of Finite Groups and Related Topics

Automorphisms of Riemann Surfaces, Subgroups of Mapping Class Groups and Related Topics

Automorphism groups of Riemann surfaces have been widely studied for almost 150 years. This area has persisted in part because it has close ties to many other topics of interest such as number theory, graph theory, mapping class groups, and geometric and computational group theory. In recent years there has been a major revival in this area due in part to great advances in computer algebra systems and progress in finite group theory. This volume provides a concise but thorough introduction for newcomers to the area while at the same time highlighting new developments for established researchers. The volume starts with two expository articles. The first of these articles gives a historical perspective of the field with an emphasis on highly symmetric surfaces, such as Hurwitz surfaces. The second expository article focuses on the future of the field, outlining some of the more popular topics in recent years and providing 78 open research problems across all topics. The remaining articles showcase new developments in the area and have specifically been chosen to cover a variety of topics to illustrate the range of diversity within the field.

Automorphisms of Finite Groups

The book describes developments on some well-known problems regarding the relationship between orders of finite groups and that of their automorphism groups. It is broadly divided into three parts: the first part offers an exposition of the fundamental exact sequence of Wells that relates automorphisms, derivations and cohomology of groups, along with some interesting applications of the sequence. The second part offers an account of important developments on a conjecture that a finite group has at least a prescribed number of automorphisms if the order of the group is sufficiently large. A non-abelian group of prime-power order is said to have divisibility property if its order divides that of its automorphism group. The final part of the book discusses the literature on divisibility property of groups culminating in the existence of groups without this property. Unifying various ideas developed over the years, this largely self-contained book includes results that are either proved or with complete references provided. It is aimed at researchers working in group theory, in particular, graduate students in algebra.