S-rings over loops, right mapping groups and transversals in permutation groups

Abstract

The centralizer ring of a permutation representation of a group appears in several contexts. In (19) and (20) Schur considered the situation where a permutation group G acting on a finite set Ω has a regular subgroup H. In this case Ω may be given the structure of H and the centralizer ring is isomorphic to a subring of the group ring of H. Schur used this in his investigations of B-groups. A group H is a B-group if whenever a permutation group G contains H as a regular subgroup then G is either imprimitive or doubly transitive. Surveys of the results known on B-groups are given in (28), ch. IV and (21), ch. 13. In (28), p. 75, remark F, it is noted that the existence of a regular subgroup is not necessary for many of the arguments. This paper may be regarded as an extension of this remark, but the approach here differs slightly from that suggested by Wielandt in that it appears to be more natural to work with transversals rather than cosets.