English

Multiple harmonic sums and multiple harmonic star sums are (nearly) never integers

Number Theory 2016-06-21 v1

Abstract

It is well known that the harmonic sum Hn(1)=k=1n1kH_n(1)=\sum_{k=1}^n\frac{1}{k} is never an integer for n>1n>1. In 1946, Erd\H{o}s and Niven proved that the nested multiple harmonic sum Hn({1}r)=1k1<<krn1k1krH_n(\{1\}^r)=\sum_{1\le k_1<\dots<k_r\le n}\frac{1}{k_1\cdots k_r} can take integer values only for a finite number of positive integers nn. In 2012, Chen and Tang refined this result by showing that Hn({1}r)H_n(\{1\}^r) is an integer only for (n,r)=(1,1)(n,r)=(1,1) and (n,r)=(3,2)(n,r)=(3,2). In this paper, we consider the integrality problem for arbitrary multiple harmonic and multiple harmonic star sums and show that none of these sums is an integer with some natural exceptions like those mentioned above.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1606.05722,
  title  = {Multiple harmonic sums and multiple harmonic star sums are (nearly) never integers},
  author = {Khodabakhsh Hessami Pilehrood and Tatiana Hessami Pilehrood and Roberto Tauraso},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1606.05722},
  year   = {2016}
}

Comments

Submitted on January 14, 2016

R2 v1 2026-06-22T14:28:25.372Z