English

Factorials $\pmod p$ and the average of modular mappings

Number Theory 2020-11-17 v1 Probability

Abstract

We have known that most sequences in M={1,2,,M}\mathcal{M}=\{1,2,\dots, M\} with length nn will miss MeλMe^{-\lambda} of the total numbers of {1,2,,M}\{1,2,\dots,M\} as the ratio n/Mn/M tends to λ\lambda. Now we consider a more general case where the numbers in {1,2,,M}\{1,2,\dots,M\} are achieved exactly k times by a 'random' sequence f(1),f(2),,f(n)f(1), f(2),\dots,f(n). We show that if n/Mλn/M\rightarrow \lambda, then the limit has a Poisson distribution, that is, the proportion of sequences for which some number in M\mathcal{M} is achieved exactly kk times has the limit λkk!eλ\frac{\lambda^k}{k!}e^{-\lambda}. We conjecture that this is the behavior of the factorial mapping modulo a prime and present a few supporting arguments.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2011.07582,
  title  = {Factorials $\pmod p$ and the average of modular mappings},
  author = {Cristian Cobeli and Alexandru Zaharescu},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2011.07582},
  year   = {2020}
}

Comments

8 pages, 6 figures