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Finite groups of order not divisible by 4 are solvable
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This is a simple extension of the odd order theorem. See comment
inside the patch.
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fingolfin committed May 28, 2018
1 parent fa92ce7 commit e456443
Showing 1 changed file with 16 additions and 2 deletions.
18 changes: 16 additions & 2 deletions lib/grp.gi
Original file line number Diff line number Diff line change
Expand Up @@ -550,10 +550,24 @@ InstallMethod( IsAlmostSimpleGroup,
##
#M IsSolvableGroup( <G> ) . . . . . . . . . . . test if a group is solvable
##
## By the Feit–Thompson odd order theorem, every group of odd order is
## solvable.
##
## Now suppose G is a group of order 2m, with m odd. Let G act on itself from
## the right, yielding a monomorphism \phi:G \to Sym(G). G contains an
## involution h; then \phi(h) decomposes into a product of m disjoint
## transpositions, hence sign(\phi(h)) = -1. Hence the kernel N of the
## composition x \mapsto sign(\phi(x)) is a normal subgroup of G of index 2,
## hence |N| = m.
##
## By the odd order theorem, N is solvable, and so is G. Thus the order of
## any non-solvable finite group is a multiple of 4.
##
InstallImmediateMethod( IsSolvableGroup, IsGroup and HasSize, 10,
function( G )
G:= Size( G );
if IsInt( G ) and G mod 2 = 1 then
local size;
size := Size( G );
if IsInt( size ) and size mod 4 <> 0 then
return true;
fi;
TryNextMethod();
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