On the irreducibility of the Dirichlet polynomial of a simple group of Lie type. (Q1758943)

Let \(R\) denote the ring of all Dirichlet polynomials of the form \(\sum_{n=1}^\infty a_nn^{-s}\) where the coefficients \(a_n\) are integers and only finitely many are nonzero. This is a unique factorization domain. If \(G\) is a finite group, then the Möbius function \(\mu_G\) is defined inductively on the subgroups of \(G\) by \(\mu_G(G)=1\) and \(\sum_{H\leq K\leq G}\mu_G(K)=0\) for all \(H<G\). Attached to \(G\) we have the Dirichlet polynomial defined by \(P_G(s)=\sum_{H\leq G}\mu_G(H)|G:H|^{-s}\). One can investigate connections between the factorization of \(P_G(s)\) in the ring \(R\) and the structure of \(G\). It is easily shown that for each normal subgroup \(N\) of \(G\), \(P_{G/N}(s)\) divides \(P_G(s)\); let \(P_{G,N}(s)=P_G(s)/P_{G/N}(s)\in R\). One can ask whether \(P_{G/K,H/K}(s)\) is irreducible if \(H/K\) is a chief factor of \(G\). This is not always true. In this paper the author investigates the irreducibility of \(P_{G/K,H/K}(s)\) in the case when the composition factors of \(H/K\) are simple groups of Lie type, proving the irreducibility under some assumptions on the Lie rank. Moreover, he shows that the Dirichlet polynomial \(P_S (s)\) of a simple group \(S\) of Lie type is reducible if and only if \(S\) is isomorphic to \(\mathrm{PSL}(2,p)\), where \(p=2^k-1\) is a Mersenne prime such that \(k\equiv 3\bmod 4\).