On products of groups and indices not divisible by a given prime

Abstract

Let the group $G = AB$ be the product of subgroups $A$ and $B$, and let $p$ be a prime. We prove that $p$ does not divide the conjugacy class size (index) of each $p$-regular element of prime power order $x\in A\cup B$ if and only if $G$ is $p$-decomposable, i.e. $G=O_p(G) \times O_{p'}(G)$.