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Finite groups have more conjugacy classes

  • Barbara Baumeister , Attila Maróti EMAIL logo and Hung P. Tong-Viet
Published/Copyright: May 27, 2016

Abstract

We prove that for every ϵ>0 there exists a δ>0 such that every group of order n3 has at least δlog2n/(log2log2n)3+ϵ conjugacy classes. This sharpens earlier results of Pyber and Keller. Bertram speculates whether it is true that every finite group of order n has more than log3n conjugacy classes. We answer Bertram’s question in the affirmative for groups with a trivial solvable radical.

MSC 2010: 20E45; 20D06; 20P99

Communicated by Karl Strambach


Funding statement: The second author was supported by an Alexander von Humboldt Fellowship for Experienced Researchers, by MTA Rényi “Lendület” Groups and Graphs Research Group, and by OTKA grants K84233 and K115799. Tong-Viet’s work is based on the research supported in part by the National Research Foundation of South Africa (Grant Number 93408). Part of the work was done while the last author held a position at the CRC 701 within the project C13 ‘The geometry and combinatorics of groups’. The first and second authors also wish to thank the CRC 701 for its support.

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Received: 2015-5-13
Revised: 2016-2-16
Published Online: 2016-5-27
Published in Print: 2017-3-1

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