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17 votes
1 answer
1k views

Explicit character tables of non-existent finite simple groups

In connection with the historical development of the classification of finite simple groups, I am interested in a particular aspect that seems to be less well-documented than the main narrative of ...
Sebastien Palcoux's user avatar
9 votes
1 answer
271 views

Original references for the Hall - Witt identity

The group identity $$ [[a,b^{-1}],c]^b \cdot [[b,c^{-1}],a]^c \cdot [[c,a^{-1}],b]^a = 1 $$ is commonly attributed to Hall and Witt (here $x^y:=y^{-1}xy$ and $[x,y]:=x^{-1}y^{-1}xy$). However, ...
R W's user avatar
  • 17k
3 votes
0 answers
115 views

Reference for the Netto's theorem on the permutation groups which was mentioned in the paper of Frobenius

I'm trying to read 'Uber die Charaktere der mehrfach transitiven Gruppen' written by Frobenius. There he mentioned some theorems of Netto. I'm depending on the Google translator. and the translation ...
gualterio's user avatar
  • 1,013
3 votes
0 answers
239 views

Groups with "just not" a property

There seems to be a standard trick in group theory which is to show that a group has a quotient group which "just not" has some property. To make things clear: let $\mathcal{P}$ be a group ...
ARG's user avatar
  • 4,432
7 votes
2 answers
669 views

Élie Cartan's paper "Les groupes réels simples, finis et continus" of 1914

Question 1. Does Élie Cartan's paper Les groupes réels simples, finis et continus, Ann. Sci. École Norm. Sup. (3) 31 (1914), 263–355 contain a classification of $\Bbb C$-linear involutions of simple ...
Mikhail Borovoi's user avatar
6 votes
0 answers
234 views

Nascent formal group law

$\DeclareMathOperator\FGL{FGL}$The formal group law (cf. Wikipedia, Ex. 1.6 of nLab, Hazewinkel) derived from an analytic function or formal series $f(x) = x + a_2 x^2 + a_3 x^3 + ...$ and its formal ...
Tom Copeland's user avatar
  • 10.5k
10 votes
1 answer
382 views

Wiener's axiomatization of the group law based on division

Gian-Carlo Rota wrote that [*]: Wiener axiomatized the group law by taking $xy^{-1}$ as the basic operation, and his axiomatization is quite different from any of the other axiom systems for groups....
Noam Zeilberger's user avatar
7 votes
2 answers
918 views

Historical reference request on Nilpotent groups

From Wikipedia: "Abelian groups were named after Norwegian mathematician Niels Henrik Abel by Camille Jordan because Abel found that the commutativity of the group of a polynomial implies that the ...
Drike's user avatar
  • 1,555
11 votes
2 answers
778 views

History of Tarski's problems on free groups

As is known, Tarski posed his questions about first-order theories of non-abelian free groups around 1945. However, the questions were not published in his papers or books. What is the original ...
owb's user avatar
  • 893
3 votes
0 answers
282 views

Galois correspondence subgroups/subsystems

In this paper (1998) by M. Izumi, R. Longo, S. Popa, there is the following result (page 49) on compact groups: Lemma 3.16. Let $G$ be a compact group and $Rep(G)$ the category of finite ...
Sebastien Palcoux's user avatar
19 votes
1 answer
3k views

On a theorem of Galois

I am currently teaching Galois theory and this week, I mentioned the following theorem of Galois : Let $P(x) \in \mathbf{Q}[x]$ be an irreducible polynomial of prime degree. Then $P$ is solvable by ...
François Brunault's user avatar
19 votes
2 answers
1k views

Does the amenability problem for Thompson's group $F$ predate 1980?

The first place where the amenability problem for Thompson's group $F$ appears in the literature is, I believe, 1980 in a problems article by Ross Geoghegan. I have heard, however, vague comments to ...
Justin Moore's user avatar
  • 3,547
17 votes
1 answer
2k views

A synopsis of Adyan’s solution to the general Burnside problem?

Where can I find a high-level overview of Adyan’s original proof of the existence of finitely generated infinite groups with finite exponent? Additionally: If possible, would an expert please ...
Jon Bannon's user avatar
  • 7,067