Nonsoluble Length Of Finite Groups with Commutators of Small Order

Let p be a prime. Every finite group G has a normal series each of whose quotients either is p-soluble or is a direct product of nonabelian simple groups of orders divisible by p. The non-p-soluble length of G is defined as the minimal number of non-p-soluble quotients in a series of this kind. We deal with the question whether, for a given prime p and a given proper group variety V, there is a bound for the non-p-soluble length of finite groups whose Sylow p-subgroups belong to V. Let the word w be a multilinear commutator. In the present paper we answer the question in the affirmative in the case where p is odd and the variety is the one of groups in which the w-values have orders dividing a fixed number

Generalised quadrangles with a group of automorphisms acting primitively on points and lines

We show that if G is a group of automorphisms of a thick finite generalised quadrangle Q acting primitively on both the points and lines of Q, then G is almost simple. Moreover, if G is also flag-transitive then G is of Lie type.Comment: 20 page

On the Exponent of a Verbal Subgroup in a Finite Group

Let w be a multilinear commutator word. We prove that if e is a positive integer and G is a finite group in which any nilpotent subgroup generated by w-values has exponent dividing e then the exponent of the corresponding verbal subgroup w(G) is bounded in terms of e and w only.Comment: Accepted for publication in the Journal of the Australian Mathematical Societ

Classification of skew translation generalized quadrangles, I

We describe new classification results in the theory of generalized quadrangles (= Tits-buildings of rank 2 and type B-2), more precisely in the (large) subtheory of skew translation generalized quadrangles ("STGQs"). Some of these involve, and solve, long-standing open problems

Bounding the Exponent of a Verbal Subgroup

We deal with the following conjecture. If w is a group word and G is a finite group in which any nilpotent subgroup generated by w-values has exponent dividing e, then the exponent of the verbal subgroup w(G) is bounded in terms of e and w only. We show that this is true in the case where w is either the nth Engel word or the word [x^n,y_1,y_2,...,y_k] (Theorem A). Further, we show that for any positive integer e there exists a number k=k(e) such that if w is a word and G is a finite group in which any nilpotent subgroup generated by products of k values of the word w has exponent dividing e, then the exponent of the verbal subgroup w(G) is bounded in terms of e and w only (Theorem B)