On products of shifted primes (Q1265268)

Denote by \( G = {\mathbb Q}^\times/\Gamma \), where \( \Gamma \) is the subgroup of \( {\mathbb Q}^\times \) generated by the shifted primes \( (p+1) \). \( \displaystyle\Gamma = \bigcup_{k=1}^\infty S_k, \) where \( S_k \) is the set of products \( \{(p_1 + 1)^{\varepsilon_1} \cdots (p_k + 1)^{\varepsilon_k}, \varepsilon_i \in \{-1, 0, 1\}\}. \) In 1995, \textit{P. D. T. A. Elliott} [J. Reine Angew. Math. 463, 169-216 (1995; Zbl 0817.11042)] proved that the order of \( G \) is \( \leq 3 \), and there exists an integer \( K \) such that for any integer \( r \) \[ r^{\text{ord}(G)} = (p_1 + 1)^{\varepsilon_1} \cdots (p_K +1)^{\varepsilon_K}, \] where \( \varepsilon_i \in \{1, -1\}. \) By a result of \textit{J. Meyer} and \textit{G. Tenenbaum} [Bull. Sci. Math., II. Ser. 108, 437-444 (1984; Zbl 0562.10021)] the lower asymptotic density \( \underline{d} ({1 \over m} \cdot S_2) \geq {1 \over 4} \) for any \( m \in {\mathbb N} \). Using this and combinatorial arguments, the authors prove 1) \( K \leq 19 \); 2) if \( \text{ord}(G) = 2, \) then \( K \leq 9 \); 3) if \( \text{ord}(G) = 3, \) then \( K \leq 5 \). One of the lemmas may be interesting in itself: Each coset modulo \( \Gamma \) has asymptotic density \( {1 \over \text{ord}(G)} \).