Automorphisms of non-abelian groups of order 27

What are the automorphism groups of non-abelian groups of order 27? (there are two non-abelian groups of order 27).


The non-abelian group of order $p^3$ with no elements of order $p^2$ is the Sylow $p$-subgroup of $\operatorname{GL}(3,p)$. Its automorphism group can also be viewed as a group of $3\times3$ matrices, the affine general linear group, $$\operatorname{AGL}(2,p) = \left\{ \begin{pmatrix}a & b& e\\ c& d& f\\ 0 & 0 & 1\end{pmatrix} : a,b,c,d,e,f \in \mathbb{Z}/p\mathbb{Z},\; ad-bc ≠ 0 \right\}, $$ which is the semi-direct product of $\operatorname{GL}(2,p)$ on its natural module.

This description is reasonably famous, especially when considering non-abelian groups of order $p^{2n+1}$ with no elements of order $p^2$ whose center and derived subgroup have order $p$. Instead of $\operatorname{GL}(2,p)$ you get a variation on $\operatorname{Sp}(2n,p)$, that simplifies to $\operatorname{GL}(2,p)$ when $n=1$.

The non-abelian group of order $p^3$ with an element of order $p^2$ and $p ≥ 3$ has as its automorphism group a semi-direct product of $\operatorname{AGL}(1,p)$ with the dual of its natural module, so you get all $3×3$ matrices $$\left\{ \begin{pmatrix}a & b& 0\\ 0& 1& 0\\ c & d & 1\end{pmatrix} : a,b,c,d \in \mathbb{Z}/p\mathbb{Z},\; a ≠ 0 \right\}. $$

In both cases the "module part" of the semi-direct product is the group of inner automorphisms and the quotient ( $\operatorname{GL}(2,p)$ and $\operatorname{AGL}(1,p)$ ) are the outer automorphism groups.

You can read about some of this in section A.20 of Doerk–Hawkes, or Winter (1972).

  • Winter, David L. “The automorphism group of an extraspecial p-group.” Rocky Mountain J. Math. 2 (1972), no. 2, 159–168. MR297859
  • Doerk, Klaus; Hawkes, Trevor. Finite soluble groups. de Gruyter Expositions in Mathematics, 4. Walter de Gruyter & Co., Berlin, 1992. xiv+891 pp. ISBN: 3-11-012892-6 MR1169099