Coprime actions of finite groups

Presenters: Cheryl Praeger, UWA

Let H be a finite linear group acting completely reducibly on a finite vector space V. Gabriel Navarro asked: if the H-orbits containing vectors a and b have coprime lengths m and n, is there an H-orbit of length mn? We answered, by showing that the H-orbit containing a + b has length mn, and by showing, moreover, that in this situation H cannot be irreducible. That is to say, a stabiliser in an affine primitive permutation group does not have a pair of orbits of coprime lengths. I will make some comments about coprime orbit lengths for stabilisers in arbitrary primitive permutation groups. This is joint work with Silvio Dolfi, Bob Guralnick and Pablo Spiga.