Abstract Root Subgroups and Simple Groups of Lie-Type

It was already in 1964 [Fis66] when B. Fischer raised the question: Which finite groups can be generated by a conjugacy class D of involutions, the product of any two of which has order 1, 2 or 37 Such a class D he called a class of 3-tmnspositions of G. This question is quite natural, since the class of transpositions of a symmetric group possesses this property. Namely the order of the product (...