Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2013/iii/paper-3/1/e/solution

We prove Hall subgroup existence in soluble groups by induction on . The trivial group is immediate. Choose a nontrivial minimal normal subgroup , elementary abelian of order by part (c). Induction gives a Hall -subgroup of ; let be its full preimage.
If , then itself is the required subgroup. If and , apply induction inside the soluble subgroup to obtain a Hall -subgroup of . Since and are both -numbers, is Hall in too.
It remains to treat and . Then is a -group. If , the subgroup one works. Otherwise choose a minimal normal subgroup of , an elementary abelian -group with . Let be a Sylow -subgroup of . As and , we have . The permitted Frattini argument gives
The last equality uses and the normality of .
If , then is a power of , hence a -number. Apply induction to and multiply indices as before. If , then is a nontrivial normal -subgroup. Induction in gives a Hall -subgroup whose full preimage in is Hall, since its additional factor is a -number. These cases exhaust the possibilities, proving existence for every prime set. No unproved complement theorem or conjugacy theorem for Hall subgroups was inserted into the proof.

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