Sporadic group

In group theory, a discipline within mathematics, a sporadic group is one of the 26 exceptional groups found in the classification of finite simple groups.

A simple group is a group G that does not have any normal subgroups except for the trivial group and G itself. The classification theorem states that the list of finite simple groups consists of 18 countably infinite families, plus 26 exceptions that do not follow such a systematic pattern. These are the sporadic groups. They are also known as the sporadic simple groups, or the sporadic finite groups. Because it is not strictly a group of Lie type, the Tits group is sometimes regarded as a sporadic group, in which case the sporadic groups number 27.