English

On the Limiting Density of a gcd Map

Number Theory 2026-04-21 v2 Rings and Algebras

Abstract

The function f(a,b)=gcd(a+b,ab)gcd(a,b)f(a,b)=\frac{\gcd(a+b,ab)}{\gcd(a,b)} is of interest in this paper. We then ask a natural question regarding how often f(a,b)=1f(a,b)=1 is. We yield the limiting density ρ=p(11p2(p+1))0.88151\rho=\prod_{p}\left(1-\frac{1}{p^2(p+1)}\right)\approx 0.88151 which is an Euler product that unexpectedly matches the quadratic class number constant from the theory of real quadratic fields. We also consider its higher-order analogue frf_r, where the problem collapses to coprimality and the density becomes 1/ζ(2)=6/π21/\zeta(2)=6/\pi^2.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2512.22494,
  title  = {On the Limiting Density of a gcd Map},
  author = {Thang Pang Ern and Malcolm Tan Jun Xi and Loh Wei Xuan Ryan},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2512.22494},
  year   = {2026}
}

Comments

There is an error regarding the computation of the limiting density

R2 v1 2026-07-01T08:42:26.676Z