Arithmetic properties of \(\varphi(n)/\lambda(n)\) and the structure of the multiplicative group modulo \(n\) (Q2494171)

Let \(\varphi(n)\) and \(\lambda(n)\) denote, respectively, the Euler and the Carmichael functions, i.e., the order and the exponent of the multiplicative group \((\mathbb Z/n\mathbb Z)^{\times}\). In this paper, the authors study the function \(\xi(n) = \varphi(n)/\lambda(n)\). Let \(P(m)\) denote the largest prime divisor of \(m\), for \(m > 1\), and put \(P(1) = 1\). The authors establish several bounds for \(P(\xi(n))\), both pointwise and on average. For example, they prove that \[ x(\log\log x)^3 \ll \sum_{n \leq x} P(\xi(n)) \ll x(\log\log x)^3. \] They also show that \[ (\log\log n)^{1 + \varepsilon} \ll P(\xi(n)) \ll (\log\log n)^{2 - \varepsilon} \] for all but \(o(x)\) values of \(n \leq x\) and for any fixed \(\varepsilon > 0\), and that \(P(\xi(n)) \gg n^{0.3335}\) infinitely often. The exponent of \(n\) in the latter result arises as \(\theta/2\), where \(\theta\) is such that a positive proportion of the primes \(p \in (x^{1/2}, x]\) satisfy the inequaliy \(P(p - 1) \gg p^{\theta}\); in particular, the exponent \(0.3335\) is derived from a result of \textit{E. Fouvry} [Invent. Math. 79, 383--407 (1985; Zbl 0557.10035)]. Furthermore, the authors obtain several estimates for \(\Omega(\xi(n))\) and \(\omega(\xi(n))\), where \(\Omega(n)\) and \(\omega(n)\) denote the total number of prime divisors of \(n\) and the number of distinct prime divisors of an integer \(n\). The paper contains also some results concerning the distribution of Euler's function \(\varphi(n)\). For example, the authors show that \[ \Omega(\varphi(n)) - \omega(\varphi(n)) = (1 + o(1))\log\log n \log\log\log\log n \] for all but \(o(x)\) values of \(n \leq x\).