Nilpotent subgroups of finite soluble groups

Abstract

The general problem, with a particular instance of which the present paper is concerned, is to obtain a description of the local structure of a group from information about the global structure. The aspect of local structure investigated here is the embedding of subgroups, especially of nilpotent subgroups in finite soluble groups. A classification of embeddings of subgroups in finite groups by means of an arithmetic function called abnormal depth was proposed in [6]. Let H be a subgroup of a finite group G. Then a(G:H), the abnormal depth of H in G, is the least number of abnormal links appearing in any balanced chain of subgroups connecting H to G, that is a chain for which each link is either normal or abnormal. Thus a (G:H)= 0 if and only if H is subnormal in G; and a(G:P)__< 1 for every subgroup P of G of prime power order. It was shown in [6] that if H is a nilpotent subgroup of a finite soluble group G, of nilpotent length n, then a (G: H) =< n - 1. Here in w 1 we examine in greater detail the easiest non-trivial case, in which n = 2, and then in w 2 prove certain supplementary results for n = 3 and n = 4. Some simple wreath product properties are established in w 3 and used in w 4 for the construction of examples showing that the embedding results obtained cannot be improved in various obvious ways. Notation and terminology follow common usage. If t; and ~ are classes of groups, then 3s ~ denotes the class of all groups G having a normal subgroup X such that X e 3~ and G/X e ~. This defines a composition of classes of groups which in general is not associative. However, we shall deal only with classes of which the composition is associatNe, and we may therefore omit brackets from products of more than two classes. Since we shall be concerned exclusively with finite groups, we take 91 to denote the class of finite nilpotent groups and 9.1 the class of finite abelian groups. Then for any positive integer n, 9l" is the class of finite soluble groups of nilpotent lengths <__ n; and 9.I" is the class of finite soluble groups of derived lengths __< n. Henceforth the term group is understood to mean finite group. Then any group G has a unique smallest normal subgroup L such that G/L is nilpotent: G/L is called the 91-residual ofG. IfH is any subgroup of G, then there is a unique smallest normal subgroup of G containing H, called the normal closure of H in G and denoted by Ha; and a unique smallest subnormal subgroup of G containing H, called the subnormal closure of H in G and (following Wielandt [8]) denoted by H'" a. If H a = G, we shall say that H is contranormal in G. Then, for any subgroup H of G, it is clear that H is contranormal in H'" a. (This is to be compared with the fact that the hypernormalizer NE(H ) of H in G is self-normalizing in G.) An abnormal subgroup is both self-normalizing and