Group Theory – Upper Bounds on the Size of Aut(G)

automorphism-groupfinite-groupsgroup-theory

Any automorphism of a group $G$ is a bijection that fixes the identity, so an easy upper bound for the size of $\operatorname{Aut}(G)$ for a finite group $G$ is given by

\begin{align*}\lvert\operatorname{Aut}(G)\rvert \leq (|G| – 1)! \end{align*}

This inequality is an equality for cyclic groups of orders $1$, $2$ and $3$ and also the Klein four-group $\mathbb{Z}_2 \times \mathbb{Z_2}$. I think it's reasonable to believe that they are the only groups with this property. The factorial $(|G| – 1)!$ is eventually huge. I searched through groups of order less than $100$ with GAP and found no other examples.

The problem can be reduced to the abelian case. We can check the groups of order $< 6$ by hand. Then if $|G| \geq 6$ and the equality holds, we have $\operatorname{Aut}(G) \cong S_{|G|-1}$. Now $\operatorname{Inn}(G)$ is a normal subgroup of $\operatorname{Aut(G)}$, and is thus isomorphic to $\{(1)\}$, $A_{|G|-1}$ or $S_{|G|-1}$. This is because $A_n$ is the only proper nontrivial normal subgroup of $S_n$ when $n \geq 5$. We can see that $(|G| – 1)!/2 > |G|$ and thus $\operatorname{Inn}(G) \cong G/Z(G)$ is trivial.

How to prove that there are no other groups for which the equality $\lvert\operatorname{Aut}(G)\rvert = (|G| – 1)!$ holds? Are any better upper bounds known for larger groups?

Best Answer

Even without the classification of finite simple groups, quite reasonable bounds are known, for example in work of P.M. Neumann. If the group $G$ can be generated by $r$ but no fewer elements, then no automorphism of $G$ can fix the $r$ given generators, so there are at most $\prod_{j=1}^{r} (|G|-j)$ different automorphisms of $G,$ since the $r$ generators must have distinct images, none of which is the identity. As P.M. Neumann has observed, $G$ can always by generated by ${\rm log}_{2}(|G|)$ or fewer elements, so we have $r \leq \lfloor {\rm log}_{2}(|G|) \rfloor .$ For $|G| >4,$ this always gives a strictly better bound for the size of ${\rm Aut}(G)$ than $(|G|-1)!.$ For large $|G|,$ it is much better. Using the classification of finite simple groups, much better bounds are known.

Later edit: Perhaps I could outline Neumann's argument, since it is quite elementary, and I do not remember a reference: Let $\{x_1, x_2, \ldots, x_r \}$ be a minimal generating set for $G$ and let $G_i = \langle x_1, x_2, \ldots, x_i \rangle $ for $i >0,$ $G_{0} = \{ e \}.$ Then for $1 \leq i \leq r,$ we have $|G_i| > |G_{i-1}|$ by minimality of the generating set. Furthermore, $|G_i|$ is divisible by $|G_{i-1}|$ by Lagrange's theorem, so $|G_i| \geq 2|G_{i-1}|.$ Hence $|G| = |G_r| \geq 2^r.$

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