Finite Groups Of Automorphisms

Finite Groups of Automorphisms

These are notes of lectures given at the University of Southampton, October-December 1969. The lectures were intended for research students working in areas related to the topics discussed, and for mathematicians working in other fields who were interested in hearing a survey of some current problems and their background. The character of the lectures has been retained by the inclusion of occasional 'philosophical' remarks, but the text has been kept free of references as far as possible.

Finite groups of automorphisms

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.