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Congruence Classes of Supporting the Erd\"{o}s-Straus Conjecture I: Tame Solutions

Number Theory 2026-05-25 v1

Abstract

In 1948, Erd\"{o}s and Straus formulated a conjecture : for any positive integer n>2n>2, there exist positive integers n1,n2n_1,n_2 and n3n_3 such that \begin{equation}\frac{4}{n}=\frac{1}{n_1}+\frac{1}{n_2}+\frac{1}{n_3},\nonumber\end{equation} which is still open. It is known that one only needs to prove the conjecture for any prime number nn such that n1  (\mboxmod  24)n\equiv 1\;(\mbox{mod}\;24). If n=24m+1n=24m+1 and n1n2,n3n_1\leq n_2,n_3, then n1=6m+kn_1=6m+k with 1k12m1\leq k\leq 12m. A solution (n1,n2,n3)(n_1,n_2,n_3) of the above equation is called a {\it tame solution} if n2n_2 and n3n_3 are factors of (6m+k)(24m+1)(6m+k)(24m+1). We call n=24m+1n=24m+1 {\it wild} if it does not have any tame solution. Computer calculation shows that there are only nine wild primes among the 7185 primes of the form 24m+124m+1 with m30000m\leq 30000. In this paper, we derive the tame solutions of the above equation for the integers of the form 24m+124m+1 with mm parameterized by certain congruence classes. They cover the solvability of all the 586 tame primes among the 591 primes of the form 24m+124m+1 with m2000m\leq 2000.

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Cite

@article{arxiv.2605.23601,
  title  = {Congruence Classes of Supporting the Erd\"{o}s-Straus Conjecture I: Tame Solutions},
  author = {Xiaoping Xu},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2605.23601},
  year   = {2026}
}

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62pages