On a relation between the Fitting length of a soluble group and the number of conjugacy classes of its maximal nilpotent subgroups

Abstract

In a finite soluble group G, the Fitting (or nilpotency) length h(G) can be considered as a measure for how strongly G deviates from being nilpotent. As another measure for this, the number v(G) of conjugacy classes of the maximal nilpotent subgroups of G may be taken. It is shown that there exists an integer-valued function f on the set of positive integers such that h(G) ≦ f(v(G)) for all finite (soluble) groups of odd order. Moreover, if all prime divisors of the order of G are greater than v(G)(v(G) - l)/2, then h(G) ≦3. The bound f(v(G)) is just of qualitative nature and by far not best possible. For v(G) = 2, h(G) = 3, some statements are made about the structure of G.