Davenport constant for finite abelian groups (Q2270516)

Let \(G=M_{n_1} \times \cdots \times M_{n_d}\) be a finite abelian group of rank \(d\) with invariant factors \(2 \leq n_1 \mid n_2 \mid \cdots \mid n_d=n\). Consider a sequence \(L=(g_1, \dots , g_1, g_2 ,\dots ,g_2, \dots ,g_d ,\dots ,g_d, s_1, \dots , s_r)\) of elements of \(G\), where \(g_1, \dots, g_d\) are distinct, and \(g_j\) appears \(n_j -k_j\) times, with \(1\leq k_j \leq n_j\), the order of \(g_j\) divides \(n_j\), but does not divide any other invariant factor which is strictly smaller than \(n_j\), and where \(s_1, \dots, s_r\) are arbitrary elements of \(G\) with \(r=n+\max \left( 0, \left[ n \log \left( \frac{| G|}{n}\prod_{j=1}^d \frac{k_j}{n_j}\right) \right] \right)\). The author proves that \(L\) has a subsequence whose product is the identity of \(G\). Various applications are given to \(D(\mathbb{Z}_n^*)\). Here \(D(G)\) denotes the Davenport constant, i.e.~the least positive integer \(s\) such that any sequence (with possible repetition) of \(s\) elements contains a subsequence whose product is the identity of \(G\). Let \(\lambda\) denote the Carmichael function. It is proved that for almost all \(n\leq x\) one has \(\frac{D(\mathbb{Z}_n^*)}{\lambda(n)}=O(\log \log x \log \log \log x) \) and for \(x\geq 3\): \(\sum_{ n \leq x} \frac{D(\mathbb{Z}_n^*)}{\lambda(n)}=O(x (\log \log x)^3) \). Also, various bounds are proved for \(n\) with a restricted number of prime factors.