pℓp^\ell-Torsion Points In Finite Abelian Groups And Combinatorial Identities

The main aim of this article is to compute all the moments of the number of $p^\ell$-torsion elements in some type of nite abelian groups. The averages involved in these moments are those de ned for the Cohen-Lenstra heuristics for class groups and their adaptation for Tate-Shafarevich groups. In particular, we prove that the heuristic model for Tate-Shafarevich groups is compatible with the recent conjecture of Poonen and Rains about the moments of the orders of $p$-Selmer groups of elliptic curves. For our purpose, we are led to de ne certain polynomials indexed by integer partitions and to study them in a combinatorial way. Moreover, from our probabilistic model, we derive combinatorial identities, some of which appearing to be new, the others being related to the theory of symmetric functions. In some sense, our method therefore gives for these identities a somehow natural algebraic context.Comment: 24 page

van Douwen's problems related to the Bohr topology

We comment van Douwen's problems on the Bohr topology of the abelian groups raised in his paper (The maximal totally bounded group topology on G and the biggest minimal G-space for Abelian groups G) as well as the steps in the solution of some of them. New solutions to two of the resolved problems are also given.Comment: 14 page

On a conjecture of Gluck

Let $F(G)$ and $b(G)$ respectively denote the Fitting subgroup and the largest degree of an irreducible complex character of a finite group $G$. A well-known conjecture of D. Gluck claims that if $G$ is solvable then $|G:F(G)|\leq b(G)^{2}$. We confirm this conjecture in the case where $|F(G)|$ is coprime to 6. We also extend the problem to arbitrary finite groups and prove several results showing that the largest irreducible character degree of a finite group strongly controls the group structure.Comment: 16 page