@article{article_259726, title={The covering number of $M_{24}$}, journal={Journal of Algebra Combinatorics Discrete Structures and Applications}, volume={3}, pages={155–158}, year={2016}, DOI={10.13069/jacodesmath.90728}, author={Epstein, Michael and Magliveras, Spyros S.}, abstract={A  finite cover $\mathcal{C}$ of a group $G$ is a finite collection of proper subgroups of $G$ such that $G$ is equal to the union of all of the members of $\mathcal{C}$. Such a cover is called {\em minimal} if it has the smallest cardinality among all finite covers of $G$. The  covering number of $G$, denoted by $\sigma(G)$, is the number of subgroups in a minimal cover of $G$. In this paper the covering number of the Mathieu group $M_{24}$ is shown to be 3336.}, number={3}, publisher={iPeak Academy}