Enumerating finite groups of given order (Q1803526)

Let \(f(n)\) denote the number of isomorphism classes of groups of order \(n\). It strongly depends on the arithmetic structure of \(n\). For \(n=p^ \alpha\), a prime power, \textit{G. Higman} [Proc. Lond. Math. Soc., III. Ser. 10, 24-30 (1960; Zbl 0093.02603)] and \textit{C. C. Sims} [ibid. 15, 151- 166 (1965; Zbl 0133.284)] proved that \(f(n)=n^{(2/27+o(1))\alpha^ 2}\) for \(\alpha\to\infty\). Now in general let \(n=\prod p_ i^{\alpha_ i}\) and \(\mu=\max\alpha_ i\). The author proves that \(f(n)\leq n^{(2/27+o(1))\mu^ 2}\) for \(\mu\to\infty\). This follows from the main result of the paper, which estimates the number of groups with given Sylow \(p_ i\)-subgroups for each prime divisor \(p_ i\) of \(n\). It turns out that this is less than \(n^{75\mu+16}\). The proof makes use of the classification of finite simple groups, however, the case of solvable groups seems to be the crucial one. A construction shows that there exists a constant \(c\) such that for infinitely many values of \(n\) the number of non-isomorphic groups of order \(n\) with elementary abelian Sylow subgroups is at least \(n^{c\mu}\). Among the tools developed for proving the main result some are quite interesting in their own right, for example the estimates for the order of the automorphism group of any group of order \(n\), for the number of maximal solvable subgroups in \(S_ n\) and in \(\text{GL}(n,p)\), for the number of all subgroups in \(S_ n\). The paper ends with some conjectures, e.g. that almost all groups are nilpotent; or if \(n\leq 2^ \alpha\) then \(f(n)\leq f(2^ \alpha)\) -- this one due to P. Erdős.