Groups with conjugacy classes of coprime sizes

Abstract

Suppose that $x$, $y$ are elements of a finite group $G$ lying in conjugacy classes of coprime sizes. We prove that $\langle x^G \rangle \cap \langle y^G \rangle$ is an abelian normal subgroup of $G$ and, as a consequence, that if $x$ and $y$ are $π$-regular elements for some set of primes $π$, then $x^G y^G$ is a $π$-regular conjugacy class in $G$. The latter statement was previously known for $π$-separable groups $G$ and this generalisation permits us to extend several results concerning the common divisor graph on $p$-regular conjugacy classes, for some prime $p$.