On finite $p$-groups whose central automorphisms are all class preserving

Abstract: We obtain certain results on a finite $p$-group whose central automorphisms are all class preserving. In particular, we prove that if $G$ is a finite $p$-group whose central automorphisms are all class preserving, then $d(G)$ is even, where $d(G)$ denotes the number of elements in any minimal generating set for $G$. As an application of these results, we obtain some results regarding finite $p$-groups whose automorphisms are all class preserving. In particular, we prove that if $G$ is a finite $p$-groups whose automorphisms are all class preserving, then order of $G$ is at least $p^8$ and the order of the automorphism group of $G$ is at least $p^12$.