Paper 3, Section II, G

Representation Theory
Part II, 2017

(a) State Burnside's paqbp^{a} q^{b} theorem.

(b) Let PP be a non-trivial group of prime power order. Show that if HH is a non-trivial normal subgroup of PP, then HZ(P){1}H \cap Z(P) \neq\{1\}.

Deduce that a non-abelian simple group cannot have an abelian subgroup of prime power index.

(c) Let ρ\rho be a representation of the finite group GG over C\mathbb{C}. Show that δ:gdet(ρ(g))\delta: g \mapsto \operatorname{det}(\rho(g)) is a linear character of GG. Assume that δ(g)=1\delta(g)=-1 for some gGg \in G. Show that GG has a normal subgroup of index 2 .

Now let EE be a group of order 2k2 k, where kk is an odd integer. By considering the regular representation of EE, or otherwise, show that EE has a normal subgroup of index 2.2 .

Deduce that if HH is a non-abelian simple group of order less than 80 , then HH has order 60 .