Conway groups

In the area of modern algebra known as group theory, the Conway groups are the three sporadic simple groups Co₁, Co₂ and Co₃ along with the related finite group Co₀ introduced by (Conway 1968, 1969).

The largest of the Conway groups, Co₀, is the group of automorphisms of the Leech lattice Λ with respect to addition and inner product. It has order

but it is not a simple group. The simple group Co₁ of order

is defined as the quotient of Co₀ by its center, which consists of the scalar matrices ±1.

The inner product on the Leech lattice is defined as 1/8 the sum of the products of respective co-ordinates of the two multiplicand vectors; it is an integer. The square norm of a vector is its inner product with itself, always an even integer. It is common to speak of the type of a Leech lattice vector: half the square norm. Subgroups are often named in reference to the types of relevant fixed points. This lattice has no vectors of type 1.

The groups Co₂ (of order 42,305,421,312,000) and Co₃ (of order 495,766,656,000) consist of the automorphisms of Λ fixing a lattice vector of type 2 and a vector of type 3 respectively. As the scalar −1 fixes no non-zero vector, these two groups are isomorphic to subgroups of Co₁.

Thomas Thompson (1983) relates how John Leech about 1964 investigated close packings of spheres in Euclidean spaces of large dimension. One of Leech's discoveries was a lattice packing in 24-space, based on what came to be called the Leech lattice Λ. He wondered whether his lattice's symmetry group contained an interesting simple group, but felt he needed the help of someone better acquainted with group theory. He had to do much asking around because the mathematicians were pre-occupied with agendas of their own. John Conway agreed to look at the problem. John G. Thompson said he would be interested if he were given the order of the group. Conway expected to spend months or years on the problem, but found results in just a few sessions.

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