Multiplicative groups avoiding a fixed group (Q6969886)

It is known that any finite abelian group \(G\) appears as a subgroup of infinitely many multiplicative groups \(\mathbb{Z}_n^\times\). In the paper under review, the authors study the possibility that \(G\) appears as a subgroup of almost all multiplicative groups \(\mathbb{Z}_n^\times\), considering the function\N\[\NS(x;G) = \#\{ n\le x : G \nleq \mathbb{Z}_n^\times\}.\N\]\NThe simplest case is when \(G \cong \mathbb{Z}_2^{k}\). In this case estimating \(S(x;G)\) essentially reduces to counting integers with at most \(k-1\) distinct prime factors, and accordingly, the authors show that for any integer \(k \geq 2\),\N\[\NS(x;\mathbb{Z}_2^k)=\frac3{2(k-2)!}\frac{x (\log\log x)^{k-2}}{\log x}\biggl(1+O_k\biggl( \frac{1}{\log\log x} \biggr)\biggr).\N\]\NThey also obtain similar asymptotic for \(S(x;G)\) when \(G \not\cong \mathbb{Z}_2^k\). More precisely, for this case they prove that if \(G\) has a unique dominant summand \(\mathbb{Z}_{p^\alpha}^k\), then\N\[\NS(x;G)=K(p^\alpha, k)\frac{x (\log\log x)^{k - 1}}{(\log x)^{1 / \phi(p^\alpha)}}\biggl( 1 + O_G \biggl( \frac{1}{\log\log x} \biggr) \biggr),\N\]\Nwhile if \(G\) has two dominant summands \(\mathbb{Z}_{p^\alpha}^k\) and \(\mathbb{Z}_{q^\beta}^k\), then\N\[\NS(x;G)=\bigl( K(p^\alpha, k) + K(q^\beta,k) \bigr) \frac{x (\log\log x)^{k - 1}}{(\log x)^{1 / \phi(p^\alpha)}} \biggl( 1 + O_G \biggl( \frac{1}{\log\log x} \biggr) \biggr).\N\]\NIn both cases, the leading constants are determined explicitly. I believe that this paper is a nice example of studying group theory concepts by using standard tools from analytic number theory.