Simple sharply 2-transitive groups

TL;DR

This paper constructs simple sharply 2-transitive groups, answering an open question by Peter Neumann, and shows that all such groups of characteristic 0 can be embedded into a simple one.

Contribution

It introduces a method to construct simple sharply 2-transitive groups and proves their universality for groups of characteristic 0.

Findings

Construction of simple sharply 2-transitive groups

Embedding of all characteristic 0 groups into simple ones

Resolution of an open question by Peter Neumann

Abstract

We construct simple sharply 2-transitive groups. Our result answers an open question of Peter Neumann. In fact, we prove that every sharply 2-transitive group of characteristic 0 embeds into a simple sharply 2-transitive group.