Published online by Cambridge University Press: 24 October 2008
1. Few mod 2 finite simply-connected spaces are known to support an H-structure. These examples arise from products of Lie groups and seven spheres. It has been shown in (12) and (14) that the space of a mod 2 finite H-space of given rank can belong to only a finite number of different homotopy types. The situation at odd primes is very different; many examples of mod p finite H-spaces are known, such as p-localized odd-dimensional spheres. Therefore there are infinitely many homotopy types of prescribed rank. If one insists that the mod pH-space has a strictly associative multiplication, or equivalently has the homotopy type of a topological group, the picture is less clear. Examples have been constructed which do not arise from Lie groups and spheres but there are strong restrictions on just what can occur by these techniques, see (5). There are only finitely many known examples in each rank. We establish that there can in fact only be a finite number of possible homotopy types for the spaces.