Connection between congruences \(n^{q-1}\equiv 1 \pmod {q^ 2}\) and divisibility of \(h^ +\) (Q1349464)

Let \(h^+\) denote the class number of the maximal real subfield of the \(p\)th cyclotomic field, where \(p\) is a prime. Assume that \(p=2l+1\) with \(l\) a prime. In a series of papers, the author has studied the divisibility of \(h^+\) by odd primes \(q\) whose order mod \(l\) is big. In this paper his result is as follows: Suppose that \(l \equiv 3 \pmod 4\), \(p \equiv -1 \pmod q\), \(p \not\equiv -1 \pmod {q^3}\) and \({\text{ord}}_l q = (l-1)/2\); then it follows from \(q\mid h^+\) that each factor \(n\) of \(l+1\) satisfies the congruence \(n^{q-1} \equiv 1 \pmod {q^2}\). In particular, \(2^{q-1} \equiv 3^{q-1} \equiv 1 \pmod{q^2}\). This means that such primes \(q\) seem to be extremely rare (if there are any). The proof starts from the author's previous divisibility criterion [ibid. 63, 67-86 (1993; Zbl 0788.11052)] and involves complicated manipulations with numbers of the form \(\sum_{i=1}^k i^{-1} \pmod q\), \(k \geq 1\). \{The reviewer has shown [Manuscr. Math. (to appear)] how some of these manipulations could be replaced by simpler arguments\}.