Let G be a finite group of order pk, where p is a prime and k ≥ 1, such that G is either cyclic, quaternion or generalised quaternion. Let V be a finite-dimensional free KG-module where K is a field of characteristic p. The Lie powers Ln(V) are naturally KG-modules and the main result identifies these modules up to isomorphism. There are only two isomorphism types of indecomposables occurring as direct summands of these modules, namely the regular KG-module and the indecomposable of dimension pk – pk−1 induced from the indecomposable K H-module of dimension p − 1, where H is the unique subgroup of G of order p. Formulae are given for the multiplicities of these indecomposables in Ln(V). This extends and utilises work of the first author and R. Stöhr concerned with the case where G has order p.

A cover for a group is a finite set of subgroups whose union is the whole group. A cover is minimal if its cardinality is minimal. Minimal covers of finite soluble groups are categorised; in particular all but at most one of their members are maximal subgroups. A characterisation is given of groups with minimal covers consisting of abelian subgroups.

The authors describe the structure of the normal closure of a cyclic permutable subgroup of odd order in a finite group.

We consider finite groups with the property that any proper factor can be generated by a smaller number of elements than the group itself. We study some problems related with the probability of generating these groups with a given number of elements.

Let R be a ring with 1 and En (R) be the subgroup of GLn(R) generated by the matrices I + reij, r ∈ R, i ≠ j. We prove that the subgroup of consisting of the matrices of shape , where and , is (2, 3, 7)-generated whenever R is finitely generated and n, are large enough.

Let K be a field of characteristic p. The permutation modules associated to partitions of n, usually denoted as Mλ, play a central role not only for symmetric groups but also for general linear groups, via Schur algebras. The indecomposable direct summands of these Mλ were parametrized by James; they are now known as Young modules; and Klyachko and Grabmeier developed a ‘Green correspondence’ for Young modules. The original parametrization used Schur algebras; and James remarked that he did not know a proof using only the representation theory of symmetric groups. We will give such proof, and we will at the same time also prove the correspondence result, by using only the Brauer construction, which is valid for arbitrary finite groups.

The paper discusses modules over free nilpotent groups and demonstrates that faithful modules are more restricted than might appear at first glance. Some discussion is also made of applying the techniques more generally.

This paper inverstigates the automorphism groups of Cayley graphs of metracyclic p-gorups. A characterization is given of the automorphism groups of Cayley grahs of a metacyclic p-group for odd prime p. In particular, a complete determiniation of the automophism group of a connected Cayley graph with valency less than 2p of a nonabelian metacyclic p-group is obtained as a consequence. In subsequent work, the result of this paper has been applied to solve several problems in graph theory.

Comments are made on the following question. Let m, n be positive integers and g a finite group. Suppose that for all choices of a subset of cardinality m and of a subset of cardinality n in g some member of the first commutes with some member of the second. Under what conditions on m, n is the group abelian?

Bounds are obtained for the minimum number of generators for the fundamental groups of a family of closed 3-dimensional manifolds. A significant role has been played by the use of computers.

A permutation group is said to be quasiprimitive if every nontrivial normal subgroup is transitive. Every primitive permutation group is quasiprimitive, but the converse is not true. In this paper we start a project whose goal is to check which of the classical results on finite primitive permutation groups also holds for quasiprimitive ones (possibly with some modifications). The main topics addressed here are bounds on order, minimum degree and base size, as well as groups containing special p-elements. We also pose some problems for further research.

We exhibit a variation of the Lazard Elimination theorem for free restricted Lie algebras, and apply it to two problems about finite group actions on free Lie algebras over fields of positive characteristic.

Let V be an infinite-dimensional vector space ovre a field of characteristic 0. It is well known that the tensor algebra T on V is a completely reducible module for the general linear group G on V. This paper is concerned with those quotient algebras A of T that are at the same time modules for G. A partial solution is given to the problem of determinig those A in which no irreducible constitutent has multiplicity greater thatn 1.