When does $G$ act primitively on itself by left multiplication

group-actionsgroup-theorysimple-groups

Let $G$ be a (finite) group. I am trying to find equivalent formulations for when $G$ acts primitively on itself by left multiplication. I only know that $G$ acts transitively on itself by left multiplication, since the orbit of any $g\in G$ is $G$.

The idea comes from this post:
Prove that a doubly transitive group is primitive.. In the only answer, the last paragraph quotes:

Then the primitivity condition on $X$, usually stated in terms of partitions (where the cells are called blocks), can be translated to the statement that $X$ has no nontrivial homomorphic images. Thus, they are the analogue of simple groups in the category of $G$-sets.

Working out the details, I see that $G$ is simple if and only if there are no non-trivial partition of $G$ into cosets of the fibre $\phi^{-1}(e_H)$ for some group homomorphism $\phi:G\to H$, i.e. the two only partitions are
$$\{G\}~~~\text{or}~~~\{\{g\}:g\in G\}.$$

Does this mean that $G$ acts primitively on itself if and only if $G$ is simple?

Best Answer

Your conclusion is not correct. You can check that if $H$ is a subgroup of $G$, then the (left) cosets of $H$ form a set of blocks for the (left) multiplication action of $G$ on itself. So if the action is primitive, then $G$ has no nontrivial proper subgroups, so $G$ is a cyclic group of prime order. Conversely, if $G$ is cyclic of prime order, then only trivial blocks are possible since the order of a block divides the order of the group, so the action is primitive.

In general, an action of $G$ on $X$ is primitive iff the action is transitive and the stabilizer of (any or all) points is a maximal subgroup of $G$. The action of $G$ on itself has trivial stabilizer, so that action is primitive iff the trivial group is maximal. This leads to the same result.

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