Intense Automorphisms of Finite Groups

Abstract

Let G G be a group. An automorphism of G G is called intense if it sends each subgroup of G G to a conjugate; the collection of such automorphisms is denoted by Int ⁡ ( G ) \operatorname {Int}(G) . In the special case in which p p is a prime number and G G is a finite p p -group, one can show that Int ⁡ ( G ) \operatorname {Int}(G) is the semidirect product of a normal p p -Sylow and a cyclic subgroup of order dividing p − 1 p-1 . In this paper we classify the finite p p -groups whose groups of intense automorphisms are not themselves p p -groups. It emerges from our investigation that the structure of such groups is almost completely determined by their nilpotency class: for p > 3 p>3 , they share a quotient, growing with their class, with a uniquely determined infinite 2-generated pro- p p group.