Published online by Cambridge University Press: 21 March 2011
A subgroup H is called weakly -supplemented in a finite group G if there exists a subgroup B of G provided that (1) G = HB, and (2) if H1/HG is a maximal subgroup of H/HG, then H1B = BH1 < G, where HG is the largest normal subgroup of G contained in H. In this paper we will prove the following: Let G be a finite group and P be a Sylow p-subgroup of G, where p is the smallest prime divisor of |G|. Suppose that P has a non-trivial proper subgroup D such that all subgroups E of P with order |D| and 2|D| (if P is a non-abelian 2-group, |P : D| > 2 and there exists D1 ⊴ E ≤ P with 2|D1| = |D| and E/D1 is cyclic of order 4) have p-nilpotent supplement or weak -supplement in G, then G is p-nilpotent.