The character table of any finite group provides a considerable amount of information about a group and the use of character tables is of great importance in Mathematics and Physical Sciences. Most of the maximal subgroups of finite simple groups and their automorphisms are extensions of elementary abelian groups. Various techniques have been used to compute character tables, however Bernd Fischer came up with the most powerful and informative technique of calculating character tables of group extensions. This method is known as the Fischer-Clifford Theory and uses Fischer-Clifford matrices, as one of the tools, to compute character tables. This is derived from the Clifford theory. Here G is an extension of a group N by a finite group G, that is G = N.G. We then construct a non-singular matrix for each conjugacy class of G/N =G. These matrices, together with partial character tables of certain subgroups of G, known as the inertia groups, are used to compute the full character table of G. In this dissertation, we discuss Fischer-Clifford theory and apply it to both split and non-split extensions. We first, under the guidance of Dr Mpono, studied the group 27:S8 as a maximal subgroup of 27:SP(6,2), to familiarize ourselves to Fischer-Clifford theory. We then looked at 26:A8 and 28:O+8 (2) as maximal subgroups of 28:O+8 (2) and O+10(2) respectively and these were both split extensions. Split extensions have also been discussed quite extensively, for various groups, by different researchers in the past. We then turned our attention to non-split extensions. We started with 24.S6 and 25.S6 which were maximal subgroups of HS and HS:2 respectively. Except for some negative signs in the first column of the Fischer-Clifford matrices we used the Fisher-Clifford theory as it is. The Fischer-Clifford theory, is also applied to 53.L(3, 5), which is a maximal subgroup of the Lyon's group Ly. To be able to use the Fisher-Clifford theory we had to consider projective representations and characters of inertia factor groups. This is not a simple method and quite some smart computations were needed but we were able to determine the character table of 53.L(3,5). All character tables computed in this dissertation will be sent to GAP for incorporation. / Thesis (Ph.D.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2011.

Let G be a finite permutation group acting on a finite set Ω. Then we denote by σk(G,Ω) the number of G-orbits on the set Ωk, consisting of all k-subsets of Ω. In this thesis we develop methods for calculating the values for σk(G,Ω) and produce formulae for the cases that G is a doubly-transitive simple rank one Lie type group. That is G ∼ = PSL(2,q),Sz(q),PSU(3,q) or R(q). We also give reduced functions for the calculation of the number of orbits of these groups when k = 3 and go on to consider the numbers of orbits, when G is a finite abelian group in its regular representation. We then consider orbit lengths and examine groups with “large” G-orbits on subsetsof size 3.

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The Lyons group denoted by Ly is a Sporadic Simple Group of order 51765179004000000 = 28 37 56 7 11 31 37 67. It(Ly) has a trivial Schur Multiplier and a trivial Outer Automorphism Group. Its maximal subgroups are G2(5) of order 5859000000 and index 8835156, 3 McL:2 of order 5388768000 and index 9606125, 53 L3(5) of order 46500000 and index 1113229656, 2 A11 of order 29916800 and index 1296826875, 51+4 + :4S6 of order 9000000 and index 5751686556, 35:(2 M11) of order 3849120 and index 13448575000, 32+4:2 A5 D8 of order 699840 and index 73967162500, 67:22 of order 1474 and index 35118846000000 and 37:18 of order 666 and index 77725494000000. Its existence was suggested by Richard Lyons. Lyons characterized its order as the unique possible order of any nite simple group where the centralizer of some involution is isomorphic to the nontrivial central extension of the alternating group of degree 11 by the cyclic group of order 2. Sims proved the existence of this group and its uniqueness using permutations and machine calculations. In this dissertation, we compute the (p; q; t)-generations of the Lyons group for dis- tinct primes p, q and t which divide the order of Ly such that p < q < t. For computations, we made use of the Computer Algebra System GAP / Mathematical Sciences / M.Sc. (Mathematics)

The Lyons group denoted by Ly is a Sporadic Simple Group of order 51765179004000000 = 28 37 56 7 11 31 37 67. It(Ly) has a trivial Schur Multiplier and a trivial Outer Automorphism Group. Its maximal subgroups are G2(5) of order 5859000000 and index 8835156, 3 McL:2 of order 5388768000 and index 9606125, 53 L3(5) of order 46500000 and index 1113229656, 2 A11 of order 29916800 and index 1296826875, 51+4 + :4S6 of order 9000000 and index 5751686556, 35:(2 M11) of order 3849120 and index 13448575000, 32+4:2 A5 D8 of order 699840 and index 73967162500, 67:22 of order 1474 and index 35118846000000 and 37:18 of order 666 and index 77725494000000. Its existence was suggested by Richard Lyons. Lyons characterized its order as the unique possible order of any nite simple group where the centralizer of some involution is isomorphic to the nontrivial central extension of the alternating group of degree 11 by the cyclic group of order 2. Sims proved the existence of this group and its uniqueness using permutations and machine calculations. In this dissertation, we compute the (p; q; t)-generations of the Lyons group for dis- tinct primes p, q and t which divide the order of Ly such that p < q < t. For computations, we made use of the Computer Algebra System GAP / Mathematical Sciences / M.Sc. (Mathematics)

The main goal of this thesis is a contribution to the classification of all incidence geometries<p>of rank two on which some group PSL(2,q), q a prime power, acts flag-transitively.<p>Actually we require that the action be RWPRI (residually weakly primitive) and (2T)1<p>(doubly transitive on every residue of rank one). In fact our definition of RWPRI requires<p>the geometry to be firm (each residue of rank one has at least two elements) and RC<p>(residually connected).<p><p>The main goal is achieved in this thesis.<p>It is stated in our "Main Theorem". The proof of this theorem requires more than 60pages.<p><p>Quite surprisingly, our proof in the direction of the main goal uses essentially the classification<p>of all subgroups of PSL(2,q), a famous result provided in Dickson’s book "Linear groups: With an exposition of the Galois field theory", section 260, in which the group is called Linear Fractional Group LF(n, pn).<p><p>Our proof requires to work with all ordered pairs of subgroups up to conjugacy.<p><p>The restrictions such as RWPRI and (2T)1 allow for a complete analysis.<p><p>The geometries obtained in our "Main Theorem" are bipartite graphs; and also locally 2-arc-transitive<p>graphs in the sense of Giudici, Li and Cheryl Praeger. These graphs are interesting in their own right because of<p>the numerous connections they have with other fields of mathematics. / Doctorat en Sciences / info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished