Short presentations of finite simple groups

Abstract

Guralnick, Kantor, Kassabov and Lubotzky (J. Eur. Math. Soc. 13.2, 2011, 391-458) [GKKL] give 3-generator 7-relator presentations of $A_n$ and $S_n$ with bit-length $O(\log n)$ for $n\ge 5$. This is the best possible bit-length, since $\Omega (\log n)$ bits are required to specify the integer $n$ in the input. However, the generators do not satisfy the relations. This paper considers the relevant arguments given in [GKKL], identifies where the errors occur, and shows how they can be fixed in order to recover this result. The presentations are available in Magma.

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