OFFSET
1,1
COMMENTS
All such orders are composite numbers (since there is only one group of any prime order).
Orders which are repeated in A109379.
Except for the first number, these are the orders of symplectic groups C_n(q)=Sp_{2n}(q), where n>2 and q is a power of an odd prime number (q=3,5,7,9,11,...). Also these are the orders of orthogonal groups B_n(q). - Dushan Pagon (dushanpag(AT)gmail.com), Jun 27 2010
a(1) = 20160 = 8!/2 is the order of the alternating simple group A_8 that is isomorphic to the Lie group PSL_4(2), but 20160 is also the order of the Lie group PSL_3(4) that is not isomorphic to A_8 (see A137863). - Bernard Schott, May 18 2020
REFERENCES
See A001034 for references and other links.
J. H. Conway, R. T. Curtis, S. P. Norton, R. A. Parker and R. A. Wilson, ATLAS of Finite Groups. Oxford Univ. Press, 1985 [for best online version see https://oeis.org/wiki/Welcome#Links_to_Other_Sites]. [From Dushan Pagon (dushanpag(AT)gmail.com), Jun 27 2010]
LINKS
C. Cato, The orders of the known simple groups as far as one trillion, Math. Comp., 31 (1977), 574-577. [From Dushan Pagon (dushanpag(AT)gmail.com), Jun 27 2010]
L. E. Dickson, Linear Groups with an Exposition of the Galois Field Theory. See also. [From Dushan Pagon (dushanpag(AT)gmail.com), Jun 27 2010]
W. Kimmerle et al., Composition Factors from the Group Ring and Artin's Theorem on Orders of Simple Groups, Proc. London Math. Soc., (3) 60 (1990), 89-122. [From Dushan Pagon (dushanpag(AT)gmail.com), Jun 27 2010]
David A. Madore, Orders of non-Abelian simple groups
Wikipedia, Classification of finite simple groups [From Dushan Pagon (dushanpag(AT)gmail.com), Jun 27 2010]
FORMULA
For n>1, a(n) is obtained as (1/2) q^(m^2)Prod(q^(2i)-1, i=1..m) for appropriate m>2 and q equal to a power of some odd prime number. [Dushan Pagon (dushanpag(AT)gmail.com), Jun 27 2010]
EXAMPLE
From Dushan Pagon (dushanpag(AT)gmail.com), Jun 27 2010: (Start)
a(1)=|A_8|=8!/2=20160,
a(2)=|C_3(3)|=4585351680,
a(3)=|C_3(5)|=228501000000000, and
a(4)=|C_4(3)|=65784756654489600. (End)
PROG
(Other) sp(n, q) 1/2 q^n^2.(q^(2.i) - 1, i, 1, n) [From Dushan Pagon (dushanpag(AT)gmail.com), Jun 27 2010] [This line contained some nonascii characters which were unreadable]
CROSSREFS
KEYWORD
nonn
AUTHOR
N. J. A. Sloane, Jul 29 2006
EXTENSIONS
Extended up to the 10th term by Dushan Pagon (dushanpag(AT)gmail.com), Jun 27 2010
STATUS
approved