English

Conjectures about Primes and Cyclic Numbers

Number Theory 2025-08-13 v1

Abstract

A positive integer nn is defined to be cyclic if and only if every group of size nn is cyclic. Equivalently, nn is cyclic if and only if nn is relatively prime to the number of positive integers less than nn that are relatively prime to nn. Because every prime number is cyclic, it is natural to ask whether a (proved or conjectured) property of primes extends to cyclic numbers. I review proved or conjectured properties of primes (including some new conjectures about primes) and propose analogous conjectures about cyclic numbers. Using the 28,488,167 cyclic numbers less than 10810^8, I test the conjectures about cyclic numbers and disprove the cyclic analog of the second conjecture about primes of Hardy and Littlewood. Proofs or disproofs of the remaining conjectures are invited.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2508.08335,
  title  = {Conjectures about Primes and Cyclic Numbers},
  author = {Joel E. Cohen},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2508.08335},
  year   = {2025}
}

Comments

35 pages, 8 figures, URL https://cs.uwaterloo.ca/journals/JIS/VOL28/Cohen/cohen41.html

R2 v1 2026-07-01T04:44:57.414Z