On finite groups whose every proper normal subgroup is a union of a given number of conjugacy classes

Abstract

Let $G$ be a finite group and $A$ be a normal subgroup of $G$. We denote by $ncc(A)$ the number of $G$-conjugacy classes of $A$ and $A$ is called $n$-decomposable, if $ncc(A)=n$. Set ${\cal K}_G = \{ncc(A)| A \lhd G \}$. Let $X$ be a non-empty subset of positive integers. A group $G$ is called $X$-decomposable, if ${\cal K}_G = X$. Ashrafi and his co-authors \cite{ash1,ash2,ash3,ash4,ash5} have characterized the $X$-decomposable non-perfect finite groups for $X = \{1, n \}$ and $n \leq 10$. In this paper, we continue this problem and investigate the structure of $X$-decomposable non-perfect finite groups, for $X = \{1, 2, 3 \}$. We prove that such a group is isomorphic to $Z_6, D_8, Q_8, S_4$, SmallGroup(20, 3), SmallGroup(24, 3), where SmallGroup$(m,n)$ denotes the $m$th group of order $n$ in the small group library of GAP \cite{gap}.