n-RECOGNITION BY PRIME GRAPH OF THE SIMPLE GROUP PSL(2,q)

Abstract

Let G be a finite group. The prime graph Γ(G) of G is defined as follows. The vertices of Γ(G) are the primes dividing the order of G and two distinct vertices p, q are joined by an edge if there is an element in G of order pq. It is proved that if p > 11 and p ≢ 1 (mod 12), then PSL(2,p) is uniquely determined by its prime graph. Also it is proved that if p > 7 is a prime number and Γ(G) = Γ(PSL(2,p2)), then G ≅ PSL(2,p2) or G ≅ PSL(2,p2).2, the non-split extension of PSL(2,p2) by ℤ2. In this paper as the main result we determine finite groups G such that Γ(G) = Γ(PSL(2,q)), where q = pk. As a consequence of our results we prove that if q = pk, k > 1 is odd and p is an odd prime number, then PSL(2,q) is uniquely determined by its prime graph and so these groups are characterizable by their prime graph.