Finite and Locally Finite Groups (Nato Science Series C: (Closed)): 471 - Tapa blanda

This book provides an extensive introduction to recent progress in the theory of locally finite groups, algebraic groups, and finite groups of Lie type. Fifteen specialists in the field have written survey articles covering the major themes of the subject, such as the theory of simple locally finite groups and the theory of finitary linear groups. The articles are based on lectures given at the highly successful Nato Asi held in Istanbul in August 1994 and organized by the late Brian Hartley.
The book which is accessible to graduate students and others with limited specialist knowledge, reaches the frontiers of current research in this rapidly developing area. Most of the main results of the subject are stated and discussed, including results not yet published elsewhere and a number of open problems are formulated which are likely to stimulate future research. The book will thus be of great interest to all research workers in group theory.

This volume contains the proceedings of the NATO Advanced Study Institute on Finite and Locally Finite Groups held in Istanbul, Turkey, 14-27 August 1994, at which there were about 90 participants from some 16 different countries. The ASI received generous financial support from the Scientific Affairs Division of NATO. INTRODUCTION A locally finite group is a group in which every finite set of elements is contained in a finite subgroup. The study of locally finite groups began with Schur's result that a periodic linear group is, in fact, locally finite. The simple locally finite groups are of particular interest. In view of the classification of the finite simple groups and advances in representation theory, it is natural to pursue classification theorems for simple locally finite groups. This was one of the central themes of the Istanbul conference and significant progress is reported herein. The theory of simple locally finite groups intersects many areas of group theory and representation theory, so this served as a focus for several articles in the volume. Every simple locally finite group has what is known as a Kegel cover. This is a collection of pairs {(G , Ni) liE I}, where I is an index set, each group Gi is finite, i Ni