Mersenne primes and solvable Sylow numbers

Abstract

Let [Formula: see text] be a prime. The Sylow [Formula: see text]-number of a finite group [Formula: see text], which is the number of Sylow [Formula: see text]-subgroups of [Formula: see text], is called solvable if its [Formula: see text]-part is congruent to [Formula: see text] modulo [Formula: see text] for any prime [Formula: see text]. P. Hall showed that solvable groups only have solvable Sylow numbers, and M. Hall showed that the Sylow [Formula: see text]-number of a finite group is the product of two kinds of factors: of prime powers [Formula: see text] with [Formula: see text] (mod [Formula: see text]) and of the number of Sylow [Formula: see text]-subgroups in certain finite simple groups (involved in [Formula: see text]). These classical results lead to the investigation of solvable Sylow numbers of finite simple groups. In this paper, we show that a finite nonabelian simple group has only solvable Sylow numbers if and only if it is isomorphic to [Formula: see text] for [Formula: see text] a Mersenne prime.