English

Counting multiplicative groups with prescribed subgroups

Number Theory 2020-07-21 v1

Abstract

We examine two counting problems that seem very group-theoretic on the surface but, on closer examination, turn out to concern integers with restrictions on their prime factors. First, given an odd prime qq and a finite abelian qq-group HH, we consider the set of integers nxn\le x such that the Sylow qq-subgroup of the multiplicative group (Z/nZ)×(\mathbb Z/n\mathbb Z)^\times is isomorphic to HH. We show that the counting function of this set of integers is asymptotic to Kx(loglogx)/(logx)1/(q1)K x(\log\log x)^\ell/(\log x)^{1/(q-1)} for explicit constants KK and \ell depending on qq and HH. Second, we consider the set of integers nxn\le x such that the multiplicative group (Z/nZ)×(\mathbb Z/n\mathbb Z)^\times is "maximally non-cyclic", that is, such that all of its prime-power subgroups are elementary groups. We show that the counting function of this set of integers is asymptotic to Ax/(logx)1ξA x/(\log x)^{1-\xi} for an explicit constant AA, where ξ\xi is Artin's constant. As it turns out, both of these group-theoretic problems can be reduced to problems of counting integers with restrictions on their prime factors, allowing them to be addressed by classical techniques of analytic number theory.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2007.09497,
  title  = {Counting multiplicative groups with prescribed subgroups},
  author = {Jenna Downey and Greg Martin},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2007.09497},
  year   = {2020}
}

Comments

21 pages