In a forthcoming paper with Venkatesh and Westerland, we require the following funny definition. Let G be a finite group and c a conjugacy class in G. We say the pair (G,c) is nonsplitting if, for every subgroup H of G, the intersection of c with H is either a conjugacy class of H or is empty.
For example, G can be the dihedral group of order 2p and c the class of an involution.
The case where c is an involution is o special interest to us. One way to construct nonsplitting pairs is by taking G to be a semidirect product of N by (Z/2^k Z), where N has odd order, and c is the conjugacy class containing the involutions of G. Are these the only examples? In other words:
Question 1: Is there a nonsplitting pair (G,c) with c an involution but where the 2-Sylow subgroup of G is not cyclic?
Slightly less well-posed questions:
Question 2: Are there "interesting" examples of nonsplitting pairs with c not an involution? (The only example we have in mind is G = A_4, with c one of the classes of 3-cycles.)
Question 3: Does this notion have any connection with anything of pre-existing interest to people who study finite groups?
Update: Very good answers below already -- I should add that, for maximal "interestingness," the conjugacy class c should generate G. (This eliminates the examples where c is central in G, except in the case G = Z/2Z).
