SEMINAR: Groups and Combinatorics Seminar: Fat elements in quasi-simple groups of Lie type

Groups and Combinatorics Seminar

Sabina Pannek (UWA/Aachen)

will speak on

Fat elements in quasi-simple groups of Lie type

at 12 noon on Tuesday 31st of May in MLR2

Abstract: We call an element of the general linear group GL(d,q) fat, or more precisely a fat(d,q;e)-element, if it leaves invariant and acts irreducibly on a subspace of dimension e > d/2 > 1. Equivalently, g in GL(d,q) is a fat(d,q;e)-element if the characteristic polynomial for g has an irreducible factor over GF(q) of degree e > d/2 > 1.

We wish to classify irreducible subgroups G of GL(d,q) which contain fat elements and are quasi-simple, that is where G is a covering group of an alternating group, a covering group of a sporadic simple group, or a quasi-simple group of Lie type. In my talk, I will discuss recent results in the latter case of G being a quasi-simple group of Lie type.