We show that if one of various cycle types occurs in the permutation action of a finite group on the cosets of a given subgroup, then every almost conjugate subgroup is conjugate. As a number theoretic application, corresponding decomposition types of primes effect that a number field is determined by the Dedekind zeta function. As a geometric application, coverings of Riemannian manifolds with certain geodesic lifting behaviours must be isometric.

We solve a fundamental question posed in Frohardt’s 1988 paper [6] on finite $2$-groups with Kantor familes, by showing that finite groups K with a Kantor family $(\mathcal {F},\mathcal {F}^*)$ having distinct members $A, B \in \mathcal {F}$ such that $A^* \cap B^*$ is a central subgroup of K and the quotient $K/(A^* \cap B^*)$ is abelian cannot exist if the center of K has exponent $4$ and the members of $\mathcal {F}$ are elementary abelian. Then we give a short geometrical proof of a recent result of Ott which says that finite skew translation quadrangles of even order $(t,t)$ (where t is not a square) are always translation generalized quadrangles. This is a consequence of a complete classification of finite cyclic skew translation quadrangles of order $(t,t)$ that we carry out in the present paper.

A first-order structure $\mathfrak {A}$ is called monadically stable iff every expansion of $\mathfrak {A}$ by unary predicates is stable. In this paper we give a classification of the class $\mathcal {M}$ of $\omega $-categorical monadically stable structure in terms of their automorphism groups. We prove in turn that $\mathcal {M}$ is the smallest class of structures which contains the one-element pure set, is closed under isomorphisms, and is closed under taking finite disjoint unions, infinite copies, and finite index first-order reducts. Using our classification we show that every structure in $\mathcal {M}$ is first-order interdefinable with a finitely bounded homogeneous structure. We also prove that every structure in $\mathcal {M}$ has finitely many reducts up to interdefinability, thereby confirming Thomas’ conjecture for the class $\mathcal {M}$.

Given a finite group $G$, the generating graph $\unicode[STIX]{x1D6E4}(G)$ of $G$ has as vertices the (nontrivial) elements of $G$ and two vertices are adjacent if and only if they are distinct and generate $G$ as group elements. In this paper we investigate properties about the degrees of the vertices of $\unicode[STIX]{x1D6E4}(G)$ when $G$ is an alternating group or a symmetric group of degree $n$. In particular, we determine the vertices of $\unicode[STIX]{x1D6E4}(G)$ having even degree and show that $\unicode[STIX]{x1D6E4}(G)$ is Eulerian if and only if $n\geqslant 3$ and $n$ and $n-1$ are not equal to a prime number congruent to 3 modulo 4.

We establish a link between regular subgroups of the affine group and radical circle algebras on the underlying vector space.

This paper introduces the concept of orbit-homogeneity of permutation groups: a group $G$ is orbit-$t$-homogeneous if two sets of cardinality $t$ lie in the same orbit of $G$ whenever their intersections with each $G$-orbit have the same cardinality. For transitive groups, this coincides with the usual notion of $t$-homogeneity. This concept is also compatible with the idea of partition transitivity introduced by Martin and Sagan.

Further, this paper shows that any group generated by orbit-$t$-homogeneous subgroups is orbit-$t$-homogeneous, and that the condition becomes stronger as $t$ increases up to $\lfloor n/2\rfloor$, where $n$ is the degree. So any group $G$ has a unique maximal orbit-$t$-homogeneous subgroup $\Omega_t(G)$, and $\Omega_t(G)\le\Omega_{t-1}(G)$. Some structural results for orbit-$t$-homogeneous groups, and a number of examples, are also given.

Various lattices of subgroups of a finite transitive permutation group G can be used to define a set of ‘basic’ permutation groups associated with G that are analogues of composition factors for abstract finite groups. In particular G can be embedded in an iterated wreath product of a chain of its associated basic permutation groups. The basic permutation groups corresponding to the lattice L of all subgroups of G containing a given point stabiliser are a set of primitive permutation groups. We introduce two new subgroup lattices contained in L, called the seminormal subgroup lattice and the subnormal subgroup lattice. For these lattices the basic permutation groups are quasiprimitive and innately transitive groups, respectively.

The famous Burnside–Schur theorem states that every primitive finite permutation group containing a regular cyclic subgroup is either 2-transitive or isomorphic to a subgroup of a 1-dimensional affine group of prime degree. It is known that this theorem can be expressed as a statement on Schur rings over a finite cyclic group. Generalizing the latter, Schur rings are introduced over a finite commutative ring, and an analogue of this statement is proved for them. Also, the finite local commutative rings are characterized in permutation group terms.