Another article on the number of homomorphisms

Abstract

We extend the class of abelian groups for which a conjecture of Asai and Yoshida on the number of crossed homomorphisms holds. We also prove a general result which connects certain problems concerning divisibility in groups to the Asai-Yoshida conjecture. One of the consequences is that for finite groups F and G the number |Hom(F,G)| is divisible by gcd(|G|, |F:F'|) if F/F' is a product of a cyclic group and a group with cube-free exponent.