Where are the second- (and third-)generation proofs of the classification of finite simple groups up to?

With respect to the second generation proof you can get an answer `from the horse's mouth' if you like: Ron Solomon gave an update on the program at BIRS recently and a video of his talk is here.

He starts the talk by comparing its progress to `the receding of the glaciers'! In reality, though, they've made very significant headway into the later volumes. (In particular he mentions, around 9:30, that volume 7 is in preparation, and it is mainly this volume that he's discussing in the talk.)


There is an interesting review by Ron Solomon of a paper in this area, which has been featured on the Beyond Reviews blog. In particular, he outlines the broad tactics that people are using in CFSG II, and some of the content that will be going into volume 7.

Also, Inna Capdeboscq apparently gave an outline of volume 8, or at least a chunk of it, at the Asymptotic Group Theory conference in Budapest. This was mentioned by Peter Cameron on his blog, sadly with no detail! If anyone can get a whiff of what she said, I would be grateful.

EDIT 15 October 2016 I emailed the group-pub mailing list and was told second-hand that Ron Solomon 'has hopes' volume 7 will be submitted next year.

EDIT 27 March 2018 Thanks to Timothy Chow in a comment on another answer, here is the link to the published version of Volume 7. So now the countdown to Volume 8 starts...

EDIT 22 June 2018 Even better news: Volume 8

...is near completion and promised to the AMS by August 2018. The completion of Volume 8 will be a significant mathematical milestone in our work. (source)

Also (from the same article):

We anticipate that there will be twelve volumes in the complete series [GLS], which we hope to complete by 2023.

Considerable work has been done on this problem [the bicharacteristic case], originally by Gorenstein and Lyons, and more recently by Inna Capdeboscq, Lyons, and me. We anticipate that this will be the principal content of Volume 9 [GLS], coauthored with Capdeboscq.

When p is odd, there is a major 600-page manuscript by Gernot Stroth treating groups with a strongly p-embedded subgroup, which will appear in the [GLS] series, probably in Volume 11. There are also substantial drafts by Richard Foote, Gorenstein, and Lyons for a companion volume (Volume 10?), which together with Stroth’s volume will complete the p-Uniqueness Case.

It would be wonderful to complete our series by 2023, the sixtieth anniversary of the publication of the Odd Order Theorem. Given the state of Volumes 8, 9, 10, and 11, the achievement of this goal depends most heavily on the completion of the e(G) = 3 problem. It is a worthy goal.

EDIT Mar 2019 Volume 8 has been published. The page listing the available volumes, along with links to more details is here.

The summary of this volume is as follows:

This book completes a trilogy (Numbers 5, 7, and 8) of the series The Classification of the Finite Simple Groups treating the generic case of the classification of the finite simple groups. In conjunction with Numbers 4 and 6, it allows us to reach a major milestone in our series—the completion of the proof of the following theorem:

Theorem O: Let G be a finite simple group of odd type, all of whose proper simple sections are known simple groups. Then either G is an alternating group or G is a finite group of Lie type defined over a field of odd order or G is one of six sporadic simple groups.

Put another way, Theorem O asserts that any minimal counterexample to the classification of the finite simple groups must be of even type. The work of Aschbacher and Smith shows that a minimal counterexample is not of quasithin even type, while this volume shows that a minimal counterexample cannot be of generic even type, modulo the treatment of certain intermediate configurations of even type which will be ruled out in the next volume of our series.

EDIT February 2021 Volume 9 has now been published. From the preface:

This book contains a complete proof of Theorem $\mathcal{C}_5$, which covers the “bicharacteristic” subcase of the $e(G) \ge 4$ problem. The outcome of this theorem is that $G$ is isomorphic to one of the six sporadic groups for which $e(G)\ge 4$, or one of six groups of Lie type which exhibit both characteristic 2-like and characteristic 3-like properties. Finally, in Chapter 7, we begin the proof of Theorem $\mathcal{C}_6$ and its generalization Theorem $\mathcal{C}^∗_6$, which cover the “$p$-intermediate” case. $\ldots$ In the preceding book in this series, we had promised complete proofs of Theorems $\mathcal{C}_6$ and $\mathcal{C}^∗_6$ in this book, but because of space considerations, we postpone the completion of those theorems to the next volume.