# Sums of element orders in groups of odd order

## TL;DR

This paper investigates the sum of element orders in finite groups of odd order, establishing bounds and characterizing groups that attain these bounds based on their prime factorization.

## Contribution

It provides new bounds for the sum of element orders in non-cyclic odd order groups and characterizes the structure of groups that achieve these bounds.

## Key findings

- For q=3, the ratio of sum of element orders to group order is at most 85/301.
- For q>3, the ratio is bounded by a function involving the smallest prime greater than q.
- Equality cases are explicitly characterized by specific group structures.

## Abstract

Denote by $G$ a finite group and by $\psi(G)$ the sum of element orders in $G$. If $t$ is a positive integer, denote by $C_t$ the cyclic group of order $t$ and write $\psi(t)=\psi(C_t)$. In this paper we proved the following Theorem A: Let $G$ be a non-cyclic group of odd order $n=qm$, where $q$ is the smallest prime divisor of $n$ and $(m,q)=1$. Then the following statements hold. (1) If $q=3$, then $\frac {\psi(G)}{\psi(|G|)}\leq \frac {85}{301}$, and equality holds if and only if $n=3\cdot 7\cdot m_1$ with $(m_1,42)=1$ and $G=(C_7\rtimes C_3)\times C_{m_1}$, with $C_7\rtimes C_3$ non-abelian. (2) If $q>3$, then $\frac {\psi(G)}{\psi(|G|)}\leq \frac {p^4+p^3-p^2+1}{p^5+1}$, where $p$ is the smallest prime bigger than $q$ and equality holds if and only if $n=qp^2m_1$ with $(m_1,p!)=1$ and $G=C_q\times C_p\times C_p \times C_{m_1}$.