The structure of the exponent set for finite cyclic groups

Abstract: We survey properties of the set of possible exponents of subsets of

(equivalently, exponents of primitive circulant digraphs on

n

vertices). Let

E_{n}

denote this exponent set. We point out that

E_{n}

contains the positive integers up to

s q r t n

, the `large' exponents

l f l o o r f r a c n 3 f l o o r + 1, l f l o o r f r a c n 2 f l o o r, n - 1

, and for even

n g e 4

, the additional value

f r a c n 2 - 1

. It is easy to see that no exponent in

[f r a c n 2 + 1, n - 2]

is possible, and Wang and Meng have shown that no exponent in

[l f l o o r f r a c n 3 f l o o r + 2, f r a c n 2 - 2]

is possible. Extending this result, we show that the interval

[l f l o o r f r a c n 4 f l o o r + 3, l f l o o r f r a c n 3 f l o o r - 2]

is another gap in the exponent set

E_{n}

. In particular,

11 o t i n E_{35}

and this gap is nonempty for all

n g e 57

. A conjecture is made about further gaps in

E_{n}

for large

n

.

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