English

A Question of Erd\H{o}s and Graham on Covering Systems

Number Theory 2025-12-04 v3 Combinatorics

Abstract

Erd\H{o}s and Graham (Erd\H{o}s and Graham, 1980) asked if there exists an nn such that the divisors of nn greater than 1 are the moduli of a distinct covering system with the following property: If there exists an integer which satisfies two congruences in the system, amodda\mod d and amodda'\mod d', then gcd(d,d)=1\gcd(d,d')=1. We show that such an nn does not exist. This problem is part of Problem # 204 on the website www.erdosproblems.com, compiled and maintained by Thomas Bloom. We also study when the divisors of nn greater than 11 can form a congruence system satisfying the above condition.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2501.15170,
  title  = {A Question of Erd\H{o}s and Graham on Covering Systems},
  author = {Sarosh Adenwalla},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2501.15170},
  year   = {2025}
}

Comments

Clarification added to Prop 4.2 10 pages