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Thisbookisintendedasanintroductiontoallthe?nitesimplegroups.During themonumentalstruggletoclassifythe?nitesimplegroups(andindeedsince), a huge amount of information about these groups has been accumulated. Conveyingthisinformationtothenextgenerationofstudentsandresearchers, not to mention those who might wish to apply this knowledge, has become a major challenge. With the publication of the two volumes by Aschbacher and Smith [12, 13] in 2004 we can reasonably regard the proof of the Classi?cation Theorem for Finite Simple Groups (usually abbreviated CFSG) as complete. Thus it is timely to attempt an overview of all the (non-abelian) ?nite simple groups in one volume. For expository purposes it is convenient to divide them into four basic types, namely the alternating, classical, exceptional and sporadic groups. The study of alternating groups soon develops into the theory of per- tation groups, which is well served by the classic text of Wielandt [170]and more modern treatments such as the comprehensive introduction by Dixon and Mortimer [53] and more specialised texts such as that of Cameron [19].
Classification of Finite Simple Groups, one of the most monumental accomplishments of modern mathematics, was announced in 1983 with the proof completed in 2004. Since then, it has opened up a new and powerful strategy to approach and resolve many previously inaccessible problems in group theory, number theory, combinatorics, coding theory, algebraic geometry, and other areas of mathematics. This strategy crucially utilizes various information about finite simple groups, part of which is catalogued in the Atlas of Finite Groups (John H. Conway et al.), and in An Atlas of Brauer Characters (Christoph Jansen et al.). It is impossible to overestimate the roles of the Atlases and the related com...