English

A proof of Spence's formula using the reciprocity law for Dedekind sums

Number Theory 2026-01-30 v1

Abstract

In 1963, Edward Spence published a proof of the following With ϕ\phi being Euler totient function, if n>1n>1 is an integer, and if \begin{equation*} 0<a_1<\cdots<a_{\phi(n)}<n, \end{equation*} are the positive integers less than nn, coprime with nn, then \begin{equation*} \sum_{j=1}^{\phi(n)}ja_j = \frac{\phi(n)}{24}\left(8n\phi(n)+6n+2\phi(m)(-1)^{\omega(m)}-2^{\omega(m)}\right), \end{equation*} where mm is the square-free part of nn and ω(m)\omega(m) is the number of prime factors of mm. Spence's proof relies on an ingenious observation considering Nagell's totient function. Later in 1971, Lucien Van Hamme provided an alternative proof of the result using Fourier analysis and previous work from Hubert Delange in 1968. In this paper I propose another proof of the formula using the reciprocity law for Dedekind sums. If the formula is of interest on its own, it also plays a role in the analysis of the distribution of the aja_j as suggested by the work from Hubert Delange.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2601.21034,
  title  = {A proof of Spence's formula using the reciprocity law for Dedekind sums},
  author = {Steven Brown},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2601.21034},
  year   = {2026}
}

Comments

8 pages