Let $q$ be a prime and let $A$ be an elementary abelian group of order at least $q^{3}$ acting by automorphisms on a finite $q^{\prime }$-group $G$. We prove that if $|\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FE}_{\infty }(C_{G}(a))|\leq m$ for any $a\in A^{\#}$, then the order of $\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FE}_{\infty }(G)$ is $m$-bounded. If $F(C_{G}(a))$ has index at most $m$ in $C_{G}(a)$ for any $a\in A^{\#}$, then the index of $F_{2}(G)$ is $m$-bounded.

Suppose that a finite group G admits an automorphism of order 2n such that the fixed-point subgroup of the involution is nilpotent of class c. Let m = ) be the number of fixed points of . It is proved that G has a characteristic soluble subgroup of derived length bounded in terms of n, c whose index is bounded in terms of m, n, c. A similar result is also proved for Lie rings.

It is shown that if $G$ is a finite $p$-group of coclass 2 with $p>2$, then $G$ has a noninner automorphism of order $p$.

Let $\def \xmlpi #1{}\def \mathsfbi #1{\boldsymbol {\mathsf {#1}}}\let \le =\leqslant \let \leq =\leqslant \let \ge =\geqslant \let \geq =\geqslant \def \Pr {\mathit {Pr}}\def \Fr {\mathit {Fr}}\def \Rey {\mathit {Re}}G$ be a finite 2-group. If $G$ is of coclass 2 or $(G,Z(G))$ is a Camina pair, then $G$ admits a noninner automorphism of order 2 or 4 leaving the Frattini subgroup elementwise fixed.

Let G be a group such that, for any subgroup H of G, every automorphism of H can be extended to an automorphism of G. Such a group G is said to be of injective type. The finite abelian groups of injective type are precisely the quasi-injective groups. We prove that a finite non-abelian group G of injective type has even order. If, furthermore, G is also quasi-injective, then we prove that G = K × B, with B a quasi-injective abelian group of odd order and either K = Q8 (the quaternion group of order 8) or K = Dih(A), a dihedral group on a quasi-injective abelian group A of odd order coprime with the order of B. We give a description of the supersoluble finite groups of injective type whose Sylow 2-subgroup are abelian showing that these groups are, in general, not quasi-injective. In particular, the characterisation of such groups is reduced to that of finite 2-groups that are of injective type. We give several restrictions on the latter. We also show that the alternating group A5 is of injective type but that the binary icosahedral group SL(2, 5) is not.

Let G be a p-group of maximal class of order pn. It is shown that the order of the group of all automorphisms of G centralizing the Frattini quotient takes the maximum value p2n−4 if and only if G is metabelian. A structure theorem is proved for the Sylow p-subgroup, Autp(G), of the automorphism group of G when G is metabelian. For p=2, Aut2(G) is the full automorphism group of G. For p=3, we prove a structure theorem for the full automorphism group of G.

In this article, a Blackburn group refers to a finite non-Dedekind group for which the intersection of all nonnormal subgroups is not the trivial subgroup. By completing the arguments of M. Hertweck, we show that all conjugacy class preserving automorphisms of Blackburn groups are inner automorphisms.