Search arXiv⌕ Search

arXiv · 2604.08724

Subindices and subfactors of infinite groups and numbers

Abstract

The theory of subfactors of groups, together with the associated notions of subindices and index stability for groupsandtheirsubsets, hasrecentlybeenintroducedandsystematicallydeveloped. Theseconceptsexhibitdeepconnections with additive combinatorics and number theory, relating to important topics such as packing and covering numbers, syndetic sets, group diameters, special integer sequences (e.g., primes and Fibonacci numbers), and classical rational sequences (e.g., Bernoulli numbers). Following the initial paper presented in 2020, two subsequent works further investigated these ideas within the framework of finite groups. In the present paper, in addition to advancing several aspects of the topic, we focus on infinite groups, with particular emphasis on groups of numbers. In this context, we introduce the RSFA (Right Subfactor Algorithm) for infinite groups and resolve several previously open problems. One of the important results is that every infinite group is index-unstable. We also correct several earlier inaccuracies and establish a weak version of a conjecture concerning differences of prime numbers. Furthermore, we determine the exact subindices for several notable sequences of integers and provide a general criterion for index stability and non-index stability of subsets in countable groups. Finally, we investigate the index stability of infinite groups and present a collection of related projects, problems, questions, and conjectures.

Explore related subjects

Keep this discovery

Explore connections, maps & timelines

BibTeXRIS

Mohammad Hadi Hooshmand. 2026-04-09. Subindices and subfactors of infinite groups and numbers. https://arxiv.org/abs/2604.08724

Cite the original work for its findings. Save a collection to share your selection of sources.

KEEP EXPLORING

Related papers

The quantitative non-unique-product landscape at the global minimum: the Nielsen-Soelberg groups

Nielsen and Soelberg proved that a finite subset $A$ of a torsion-free group with $A\cdot A$ having no unique product satisfies $|A|\ge 8$, and exhibited two groups, here $G_1$ and $G_2$, attaining the bound. Nothing quantitative was known about these extremal configurations. We construct exact, independently verified models of both groups and compute the first quantitative invariants at the global minimum. In $G_1$ no $8$-element symmetric witness lies in the radius-$6$ ball ($933$ elements, certified infeasible), while the Nielsen-Soelberg witness lies in the radius-$7$ ball: the global minimum is spread out. In $G_2$, with its natural eight-generator metric, the witness and its inverse are the only two non-UP $8$-sets in the radius-$1$ ball, and the unique-product staircase takes the value $0$ at $n=8$ but $1$ at $n=9$ -- the first known minimizer whose square has exactly one uniquely represented element, so the simultaneous failure of t.u.p. and u.p. seen in the Promislow group is not universal. No $(7,9)$ two-sided witness exists in the searched balls, so the Nielsen-Soelberg profile bound may not be sharp. Finally we treat the universal group $G_3$. Its structure is known -- Soelberg's thesis identifies an index-$8$ Heisenberg subgroup of step $8$ and proves torsion-freeness, and Gardam, studying the same group as an amalgam of Klein bottle groups, shows it to be virtually nilpotent but not virtually abelian -- and what we add is a model in search coordinates in which balls can be enumerated. In it we reproduce the Nielsen-Soelberg two-sided pair and exhibit a symmetric $15$-element witness whose trivial-coset singleton generates the centre of that Heisenberg subgroup. It is rigid and rare: within $B(5)$ the size $15$ is exactly minimal, the coset profile is forced, and exactly four such witnesses exist in $B(4)$, one orbit. Hence $m_1(G_3)\in[8,15]$ against $m_2(G_3)=16$.

math.GR↗

Generalized Graph Compositions with Applications to Difference Graphs of Finite Groups

The difference graph $D(G)$ of a finite group $G$ is obtained from the edge difference between its intersection power graph and power graph, after deleting isolated vertices. This graph has already been studied, with sufficient conditions for connectedness and a diameter bound $6$ for finite groups satisfying those conditions. We use generalized graph composition to reduce $D(G)$ to a graph $B(G)$ on the cyclic subgroups of $G$, so that connectedness and diameter are determined by the subgroup structure of $G$. We obtain a general criterion for the non-emptiness of $B(G)$ in terms of branching subgroups and b-normality, and characterize its connectedness for finite $p$-groups, non-cyclic finite abelian groups, and non-abelian groups with both trivial and non-trivial center. Combined with the previously established cyclic-group case, this gives a complete characterization of non-emptiness and connectedness of difference graphs for all finite groups. The successive structural cases lead naturally to the sharp diameter bounds $2,3,4,$ and $5$. For centerless non-abelian groups, connectedness is governed either by a unique branching subgroup or by an auxiliary graph $\mathcal A(G)$; in the latter case \[ \operatorname{diam}\mathcal A(G)-1 \leq \operatorname{diam}B(G) \leq \max\{4,\operatorname{diam}\mathcal A(G)+1\}, \] and both bounds are sharp.

math.GR↗

Finite groups with a unique real $2$-block

Let $p$ be a prime, and let $B$ be a $p$-block of a finite group $G$. A $p$-block $B$ is called \emph{real} if the set of irreducible ordinary characters contained in $B$ is invariant under complex conjugation. Motivated by Harris' classification of the finite groups with a unique $p$-block for an arbitrary prime $p$, and by McHugh and Schaeffer Fry's classification of the finite quasi-simple groups with a unique real $2$-block, we classify, in this paper, all finite groups admitting exactly one real $2$-block.

math.GR↗