November 21, 2008:

Ben Phillips, WMU

Fixed-Point-Free Automorphisms


Abstract.  

Let G be a group. An automorphism, α, of G is called fixed-point-free if α fixes only the identity of G. We shall discuss some recent work of Deaconescu and Walls regarding the structure of finite groups having a certain kind of fixed-point-free automorphism. This work generalizes a theorem of Burnside, which states that a finite group G admits a fixed-point-free automorphism of order 2 if and only if G is abelian and of odd order, by attempting to replace the order condition on α with some other requirement.