A Curious Connection Between Fermat Numbers and Finite

Reem Badr
A group is a finite or infinite set of elements together with

a binary operation (called the group operation) that together
satisfy the four fundamental properties of closure, associativity,
the identity property, and the inverse property.
An Abelian group G is a group for which the
elements commute (i.e. AB = BA for all elements A,B G).
The order of a group G is the number of elements in a G,
denoted by G.
The order of an element x of a finite group G is the
smallest power n of x such that xn equals the identity element.
A subgroup H of G is a subset of G such that H is itself a
group.
If H is a subgroup of G, then H divides G.
A cyclic group G is a group that can be generated by a single
element a, so that every element in G has the form ai for some
integer i.
Two groups are isomorphic if the correspondence between
them is one-to-one and the "multiplication" table is preserved
(i.e. there exists a bijective function between the two groups
where is a multiplicative function).
An isomorhism between two groups G, H is denoted by
G H.
Let p be a prime that divides G, where pk is the highest power
of p and G is a finite group, then a subgroup of G of order pk is
called a Sylow p-Subgroup of G.
Let x be an element of G. We define the order subset of G
determined by x to be the set of all elements in G with the
same order as x.
A group G is said to have perfect order subsets if the number
of elements in each order subset of G is a divisor of |G|.
For G (Z2)t M, where |M| is odd. G is a minimal POS
group if G has perfect order subsets and there is no proper
subgroup M of M such that (Z2)t M has perfect order
subsets
Lemma 1. If G has perfect order subsets, then G is
even.
Lemma 2. Let a, b, and t be positive integers with b
a, and let G (Zpa)t , where p is a prime. Then the
number of elements in G of order pb is (pb1)t(pt 1).
Lemma 3. Let p be a prime, let a be a positive
integer, and let q be a prime divisor of (2pa 1). Then
p divides (q 1)
Lemma 4. Let p be an odd prime dividing t. Then
(2p 1) divides (2t 1)
There are exactly (2t 1) elements of order 2 in G, since (Z2)t
is a factor of G (Lemma 2).
(2t 1) must divide |G|, as G has perfect order subsets by the
definition of a minimal POS group.
G (hence, M) must contain a Sylow p-subgroup for each prime
p dividing (2t 1).
(2t 1) must divide |M|, so it is square free.
Let p be an odd prime dividing t. Then (2p 1) divides (2t
1) (Lemma 4)
(2p 1) is square free.
Let q1 and q2 be distinct primes dividing (2p 1). Then they
both divide M.
p divides both (q1 1) and (q2 1) (Lemma 3).
p2 divides (q1 1)(q2 1) (which equals the number of
elements of order q1q2 in G which divides M because G is a
minimal POS).
Contradiction (M is supposedly square free)
(2p 1) is prime.
(2p 2) is divisible by 3, since p is odd.
If p1 and p2 are distinct odd primes dividing t, then 9 divides
(2p1 2)(2p2 2) (the number of elements of order (2p1 2)(2p2
2)in G which divides M ).
Contradiction (M is supposedly square free).
At most one odd prime p divides t.
Let 2p divide t. Then 9 divides (2t 1)(2p 2) (the number of
elements in G of order 2(2p 1)).
Contradiction (M is supposedly square free).
t is necessarily a power of a prime.
Let t = pa, a 2, p is an odd prime.
(2p 1) divides (2pa 1).
(2pa 1) is square free, thus there exists a prime q that divides
(2pa 1) such that q (2p 1).
p2 divides (q 1)(2p 2) (the number of elements of order
q(2p 1)) (Lemma 3).
Contradiction.
If t = pa, a 1
If p is an odd prime, a = 0, then t = 1 and G Z2.
If a = 1, t = p
2(2p1 1) (the number of elements of order (2p 1)) divides
|G|.
Then by same logic used with t, p-1 is a power of 2.
(2p1 1) divides |G|.
If t 1, either t = p, for an odd prime p such that (2p1 1)
divides |G|, or t = 2a for a 1.
In both cases (22a 1) is a factor of |G|.
(22a 1) = a 1 (22n 1) = a 1 Fn
Then F5 divides (22a 1) for a 6.
3 divides (22a 1) and 6700417 is a prime factor of F5,
meaning that 9 divides (22a 1)(6700416) (the number of
elements of order (2)(6700417) in G) Thus 9 divides |M|
Contradiction
5 a & t {2, 3, 4, 5, 8 , 16, 17, 32}.
Since G is a minimal POS group for each t from the indicated
set, G has a Sylow p-subgroup for each prime p that divides
(2t 1) such that (p 1) divides |G|.
By calculating all such ps for every possible t, G is proven to be
isomorphic to one of the following nine groups:

A Curious Connection Between Fermat Numbers and Finite

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Reem Badr

A group is a finite or infinite set of elements together with

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