The first author [J. Brough, ‘On vanishing criteria that control finite group structure’, J. Algebra458 (2016), 207–215] has shown that for certain arithmetical results on conjugacy class sizes it is enough to consider only the vanishing conjugacy class sizes. In this paper we further weaken the conditions to consider only vanishing elements of prime power order.

In this paper we prove that every group with at most 26 normalisers is soluble. This gives a positive answer to Conjecture 3.6 in the author’s paper [On groups with a finite number of normalisers’, Bull. Aust. Math. Soc.86 (2012), 416–423].

Let G be a group. We say that G∈𝒯(∞) provided that every infinite set of elements of G contains three distinct elements x,y,z such that x≠y,[x,y,z]=1=[y,z,x]=[z,x,y]. We use this to show that for a finitely generated soluble group G, G/Z2(G) is finite if and only if G∈𝒯(∞).

Groups having exactly one normaliser are well known. They are the Dedekind groups. All finite groups having exactly two normalisers were classified by Pérez-Ramos [‘Groups with two normalizers’, Arch. Math.50 (1988), 199–203], and Camp-Mora [‘Locally finite groups with two normalizers’, Comm. Algebra28 (2000), 5475–5480] generalised that result to locally finite groups. Then Tota [‘Groups with a finite number of normalizer subgroups’, Comm. Algebra32 (2004), 4667–4674] investigated properties (such as solubility) of arbitrary groups with two, three and four normalisers. In this paper we prove that every finite group with at most 20 normalisers is soluble. Also we characterise all nonabelian simple (not necessarily finite) groups with at most 57 normalisers.

Let G be a finite group with normal subgroup N. A subgroup K of G is a partial complement of N in G if N and K intersect trivially. We study the partial complements of N in the following case: G is soluble, N is a product of minimal normal subgroups of G, N has a complement in G, and all such complements are G-conjugate.

In a soluble group G, if the metabelian subgroups have finite (or polycyclic, or Černikov) quotients by their centres, then so too does G.

Finite groups with abelian Sylow p-subgroups for certain primes p are characterized in terms of arithmetical properties of commutators.

It is known that every torsion-free soluble group G of finite Hirsch number hG is countable, and its homological and cohomological dimensions over the integers and rationals satisfy the inequalities

We prove that G must be finitely generated if the equality hG = cdQG holds. Moreover, we show that if G is a countable soluble group of finite Hirsch number, but not necessarily torsion-free, and if hG = cdQG, then hḠ = cdQḠ for every homomorphic image Ḡ of G.