Programs

p-Quotient Program

Nilpotent Quotient Program

Soluble Quotient Program

 

Authors

M.F. Newman

Werner Nickel

Alice C. Niemeyer

E.A. O'Brien

 

Contacts

M.F. Newman

Werner Nickel

Alice C. Niemeyer

E.A. O'Brien

ANU Polycyclic Quotient Programs

At the Mathematical Sciences Institute of The Australian National University (ANU), a suite of programs has been developed for the computation of polycyclic factor groups of groups given by a finite presentation. This page is intended to give a (very) brief introduction to each program and provide links to sites from where each program is available.

All three programs are available from the archive of the Algebra Program at the Mathematical Sciences Institute. The algorithms, details of the implementations and results obtained with the programs are described in the list of publications and their references.

The ANU p-Quotient Program

This program implements

  • the p-quotient algorithm
  • the p-group generation algorithm
  • an algorithm to decide isomorphism of p-groups
  • an algorithm to compute the automorphism group of a p-group

It has been used to obtain results such as:

  • there are 56092 groups of order 256
  • the largest finite group generated by 3 elements in which every element has order dividing 5 has order 52822.
  • and (using variants for Lie and associative algebras which are not yet in the public domain) that the largest finite group generated by 2 elements in which the order of every element divides 7 has order dividing 720418.

The program is implemented in C and is available as stand-alone or as part of the systems GAP, Magma and Quotpic.

The ANU Nilpotent Quotient Program

The program implements

  • a nilpotent quotient algorithm
  • facilities for the computation of nilpotent groups that satisfy an Engel identity or have Engel elements as generators.

It has been used to

  • obtain insight into the nature of right Engel elements
  • compute polycyclic presentations for infinite nilpotent Engel groups such as the free nilpotent 2-generator n-Engel group for n=4,5,6.

The implementation is written in C and is available as stand-alone and as part of the systems GAP, Magma and Quotpic.

The ANU Soluble Quotient Program

The program implements a finite soluble quotient algorithm.

The program has been used to

  • compute a polycyclic presentation for B(2,6), the freest group on two generators with exponent 6.
  • find small sets of sixth power relations that define certain groups of exponent six.

The program is implemented in C and is available as stand-alone, or as part of the system GAP. An alternative soluble quotient algorithm by Brückner and Plesken is available in Magma.