A group sum inequality and its application to power graphs

Brian Curtin, Gholam Reza Pourgholi

Published 2013-11-12, updated 2014-03-31Version 2

Let $G$ be a finite group of order $n$, and let $C_n$ be the cyclic group of order $n$. We show that $\sum_{g \in C_n} \phi(\mathrm{o}(g))\geq \sum_{g \in G} \phi(\mathrm{o}(g))$, with equality if and only if $G$ is isomorphic to $C_n$. As an application, we show that among all finite groups of a given order, the cyclic group of that order has the maximum number of undirected edges in its directed power graph.