English

On primary Carmichael numbers

Number Theory 2024-06-25 v3

Abstract

The primary Carmichael numbers were recently introduced as a special subset of the Carmichael numbers. A primary Carmichael number mm has the unique property that sp(m)=ps_p(m) = p holds for each prime factor pp, where sp(m)s_p(m) is the sum of the base-pp digits of mm. The first such number is Ramanujan's famous taxicab number 17291729. Due to Chernick, all Carmichael numbers with three factors can be constructed by certain squarefree polynomials U3(t)Z[t]U_3(t) \in \mathbb{Z}[t], the simplest one being U3(t)=(6t+1)(12t+1)(18t+1)U_3(t) = (6t+1)(12t+1)(18t+1). We show that the values of any U3(t)U_3(t) obey a special decomposition for all t2t \geq 2 and besides certain exceptions also in the case t=1t=1. These cases further imply that if all three factors of U3(t)U_3(t) are simultaneously odd primes, then U3(t)U_3(t) is not only a Carmichael number, but also a primary Carmichael number. Together with the exceptional cases, all Carmichael numbers with three factors have at least the property that sp(m)=ps_p(m) = p holds for the greatest prime factor pp of mm. Subsequently, we show some connections to taxicab and polygonal numbers, involving the number 17291729 as an example again.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1902.11283,
  title  = {On primary Carmichael numbers},
  author = {Bernd C. Kellner},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1902.11283},
  year   = {2024}
}

Comments

32 pages, 12 tables, final revised version

R2 v1 2026-06-23T07:54:39.335Z