Personal Details

• Position: Lecturer.
• Research: My research interests are (mostly) in group theory.

Contact Details

• Departmental address: Department of Mathematics, Munster Technological University, Bishopstown, Cork, Ireland.
• Office: C224
• Phone: 021 433 6186
• Email: robert dot heffernan at mtu dot ie

Research

My research interests are primarily in the area of group theory.  Initially, my work was in finite group theory (commuting probability, p-groups and their automorphisms, some character theory) but, more recently, I have developed an interest in geometric group theory.

Recent talks

• Embeddings of small finite groups, IMS September Meeting 2020, January 2021
• Groups, words, graphs and geometry, WIT Mathematics and Physics Seminar, May 2019
• Commuting probability of finite groups, Munster Groups, September 2018
• Lines: the only things we really understand, CIT Dept. of Mathematics Spring Seminar Series, May 2016

Publications

• R. Heffernan, D. MacHale: Some shorter proofs for p-groups (Classroom note) in Bulletin of the Irish Mathematical Society, 86, 107-108 (2020)

• R. Heffernan, B. McCann: Minimal embeddings of finite cyclic groups (In preparation)

• R. Heffernan, D. MacHale: Comparing large values of commutativity ratios in finite groups (in preparation)

• R. Heffernan, B. McCann: Minimal embeddings of small finite groups in International Journal of Group Theory, 9 (3), 157-183 (2020)

• R. Heffernan, D. MacHale: Values of f(G) for groups G of odd order with Pr(G) >= 11/75 in Bulletin of the Irish Mathematical Society, 85, 17-20 (2020)

• R. Heffernan, D. MacHale: On the order of a smallest group with a given representation degree in Bulletin of the Irish Mathematical Society, 84, 21-24 (2020)

• R. Heffernan, D. MacHale, B. McCann: Cayley's theorem revisited: Embeddings of small finite groups in Mathematics Magazine, 91 (2), 103-111 (2018).
• R. Heffernan, D. MacHale, A. Ni She: Central factor groups and commutativity in Mathematical Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy, Vol. 117A (2), 63-75 (2017).
• R. Heffernan, D. MacHale, A. Ni She: Restrictions on commutativity ratios in finite groups in the International Journal of Group Theory, 3 (4), 1--12 (2014).
• J. Curran, R. Heffernan and D. MacHale: On the Order of the Automorphism Group of a Finite Group in Communications in Algebra, 39 (10), 3616-3624, (2011).
• E. C. Freuder, R. Heffernan, R. J. Wallace and N. Wilson: Lexicographically-ordered Constraint Satisfaction Problems in Constraints, 15 (1), 1383-7133 (2010).
• R. Heffernan and D. MacHale: On the sum of the character degrees of a finite group in Mathematical Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy, 108A (1), 57-63 (2008).
• E. C. Freuder, R. Heffernan and R. J. Wallace: Ordinal constraint satisfaction in The Proceedings of 5th International Workshop on Soft Constraints, 2003.