The outer automorphism group has order 2, and the Schur multiplier has order 3. The automorphism group is a 3-transposition group Fi24, containing the simple group with index 2.
The centralizer of an element of order 3 in the monster group is a triple cover of the sporadic simple group Fi24, as a result of which the prime 3 plays a special role in its theory.
Representations
The centralizer of an element of order 3 in the monster group is a triple cover of the Fischer group, as a result of which the prime 3 plays a special role in its theory. In particular it acts on a vertex operator algebra over the field with 3 elements.
The simple Fischer group has a rank 3 action on a graph of 306936 (=23.33.72.29) vertices corresponding to the 3-transpositions of Fi24, with point stabilizer the Fischer group Fi23.
The triple cover has a complex representation of dimension 783. When reduced modulo 3 this has 1-dimensional invariant subspaces and quotient spaces, giving an irreducible representation of dimension 781 over the field with 3 elements.
Generalized Monstrous Moonshine
Conway and Norton suggested in their 1979 paper that monstrous moonshine is not limited to the monster, but that similar phenomena may be found for other groups. Larissa Queen and others subsequently found that one can construct the expansions of many Hauptmoduln from simple combinations of dimensions of sporadic groups. For Fi24 (as well as Fi23), the relevant McKay-Thompson series is where one can set the constant term a(0) = 42 (OEIS: A030197),
Maximal subgroups
Linton & Wilson (1991) found the 25 conjugacy classes of maximal subgroups of Fi24' as follows:
Fischer, Bernd (1971), "Finite groups generated by 3-transpositions. I", Inventiones Mathematicae, 13 (3): 232–246, doi:10.1007/BF01404633, ISSN0020-9910, MR0294487 This is the first part of Fischer's preprint on the construction of his groups. The remainder of the paper is unpublished (as of 2010).
Linton, Stephen A.; Wilson, Robert A. (1991), "The maximal subgroups of the Fischer groups Fi24 and Fi24'", Proceedings of the London Mathematical Society, Third Series, 63 (1): 113–164, doi:10.1112/plms/s3-63.1.113, ISSN0024-6115, MR1105720