Maximal abelian and minimal nonabelian subgroups of some finite two-generator p-groups especially metacyclic

Abstract

We study the subgroup structure of some two-generator p-groups and apply the obtained results to metacyclic p-groups. For metacyclic p-groups G, p > 2, we do the following: (a) compute the number of nonabelian subgroups with given derived subgroup, show that (ii) minimal nonabelian subgroups have equal order, (c) maximal abelian subgroups have equal order, (d) every maximal abelian subgroup is contained in a minimal nonabelian subgroup and all maximal subgroups of any minimal nonabelian subgroup are maximal abelian in G. We prove the same results for metacyclic 2-groups (e) with abelian subgroup of index p, (f) without epimorphic image ≅ D8. The metacyclic p-groups containing (g) a minimal nonabelian subgroup of order p4, (h) a maximal abelian subgroup of order p3 are classified. We also classify the metacyclic p-groups, p > 2, all of whose minimal nonabelian subgroups have equal exponent. It appears that, with few exceptions, a metacyclic p-group has a chief series all of whose members are characteristic.