Superimprimitive 2-generator finite groups

Abstract

In his thesis, A. A. Hussein Omar, motivated by the study of possible shapes of generic Dirichlet regions for a surface group, made a detailed study for g = 2,3 of the groups generated by pairs (μ, τ) of regular (i.e. fixed-point-free) permutations of order 2,3 respectively and of degree n = 6(2g − 1), such that μ ْ τ is an n-cycle. He observed that, for g = 2,3, precisely one pair generates what he calls a superimprimitive group, and raised the question whether such pairs exist for all g, and, if so, whether they areunique. Our main result is that they do always exist, but that, for large values of g, theyare far from unique. (For details and some motivation for the notation, see [4, 5].)