The primitive permutation groups of degree less than 1000

Abstract

Our object is to describe all of the-primitive permutation groups of degree less than 1000 together with some of their significant properties. We think that such a list is of interest in illustrating in concrete form the kinds of primitive groups which arise, in suggesting conjectures about primitive groups, and in settling small exceptional cases which often occur in proofs of theorems about permutation groups. The range that we consider is large enough to allow examples of most of the types of primitive group to appear. Earlier lists (of varying completeness and accuracy) of primitive groups of degree d have been published by: C. Jordan (1872) [21] ford≤ 17, by W. Burnside (1897) [5] ford≤ 8, by Manning (1929) [34–38] ford≤ 15, by C. C. Sims (1970) [45] ford≤ 20, and by B. A. Pogorelev (1980) [42] ford≤ 50. Unpublished lists have also been prepared by C. C. Sims ford≤ 50 and by Mizutani[41] ford≤ 48. Using the classification of finite simple groups which was completed in 1981 we have been able to extend the list much further. Our task has been greatly simplified by the detailed information about many finite simple groups which is available in theAtlas of Finite Groupswhich we will refer to as theAtlas[8].