On finite groups isospectral to simple classical groups

Abstract

The spectrum $\omega(G)$ of a finite group $G$ is the set of element orders of $G$. Finite groups $G$ and $H$ are isospectral if their spectra coincide. Suppose that $L$ is a simple classical group of sufficiently large dimension (the lower bound varies for different types of groups but is at most 62) defined over a finite field of characteristic $p$. It is proved that a finite group $G$ isospectral to $L$ cannot have a nonabelian composition factor which is a group of Lie type defined over a field of characteristic distinct from $p$. Together with a series of previous results this implies that every finite group $G$ isospectral to $L$ is `close' to $L$. Namely, if $L$ is a linear or unitary group, then $L\leqslant G\leqslant\operatorname{Aut}(L)$, in particular, there are only finitely many such groups $G$ for given $L$. If $L$ is a symplectic or orthogonal group, then $G$ has a unique nonabelian composition factor $S$ and, for given $L$, there are at most 3 variants for $S$ (including $S\simeq L$).