Prime factors of cyclotomic class numbers
Derrick Henry Lehmer · Mathematics of Computation · 1977
Let p be an odd prime. The "first factor" h ∗ ( p ) {h^\ast }(p) of the class number of the field of p th roots of unity has been the subject of many investigations beginning with Kummer (1861). In the present paper it is shown how the theory of a function introduced by T. A. Pierce (1917) can be used to find the prime factors of h ∗ ( p ) {h^\ast }(p) .