A NEW CHARACTERIZATION OF ALMOST SPORADIC GROUPS

Let G be a finite group. Based on the prime graph of G, the order of G can be divided into a product of coprime positive integers. These integers are called order components of G and the set of order components is denoted by OC(G). Some non-abelian simple groups are known to be uniquely determined by their order components. In this paper we prove that almost sporadic simple groups, except Aut(J2) and Aut(McL), and the automorphism group of PSL(2, 2n) where n=2s are also uniquely determined by their order components. Also we discuss about the characterizability of Aut(PSL(2, q)). As corollaries of these results, we generalize a conjecture of J. G. Thompson and another conjecture of W. Shi and J. Bi for the groups under consideration.