Notes on Splitting Extensions of Groups

Extract

In [1] Gaschütz has shown that a finite group G splits over an abelian normal subgroup N if its Frattini subgroup ϕ(G) intersects N trivially. When N is a non-abelian nilpotent normal subgroup of G the condition ϕ(G)∩ N = 1 cannot be satisfied: for if N is non-abelian then the commutator subgroup C(N) of N is non-trivial. Now N is nilpotent, whence 1 ≠ C(N)⊂ϕ(N). Since G is a finite group, therefore, by (3, theorem 7.3.17) ϕ⊂ϕ(G). It follows that ϕ(G) ∩ N ≠ 1. Thus the condition ϕ(G) ∩ N = 1 must be modified. In §1 we shall derive some similar type of conditions for G to split over N when the restriction of N being an abelian normal subgroup is removed. In § 2 we shall give a characterization of splitting extensions of N in which every subgroup splits over its intersection with N.