A bound on the number of generators of a finite group (Q1822620)

The main result that is proved is: Theorem 1. A finite group can be generated by \(d+1\) elements if each of its Sylow subgroups can be generated by \(d\) elements. This generalizes an analogous result for soluble groups proved by L. Kovács in 1968. The proof uses the classification of finite simple groups. Theorem 1 is applied to prove the following conjecture concerning a problem of enumeration of finite groups proposed by P. Neumann: Theorem 2. Let \(f_ d(n)\) be the number of groups of order \(n\) whose Sylow subgroups can all be generated by fewer than \(d\) elements; if \(v(p)=\max\{a\mid p^ a\) divides \(n\}\) and \(m=\max\{v(p)\mid p\) prime\(\}\) then \(f_ d(n)\leq n^{(d+1)m+2}\).