English

Primary Pseudoperfect Numbers, Arithmetic Progressions, and the Erd\H{o}s-Moser Equation

Number Theory 2018-12-18 v1

Abstract

A primary pseudoperfect number (PPN) is an integer K>1K > 1 such that the reciprocals of KK and its prime factors sum to 1. PPNs arise in studying perfectly weighted graphs and singularities of algebraic surfaces, and are related to Sylvester's sequence, Giuga numbers, Zn\'am's problem, the inheritance problem, and Curtiss's bound on solutions of a unit fraction equation. Here we show K6(mod62)K \equiv 6 \pmod{6^2} if 6K6\mid K, and uncover a remarkable 77-term arithmetic progression of residues modulo 6286^2\cdot8 in the sequence of known PPNs. On that basis, we pose a conjecture which leads to a conditional proof of the new record lower bound k>103.99×1020k>10^{3.99\times10^{20}} on any non-trivial solution to the Erd\H{o}s-Moser Diophantine equation 1n+2n++kn=(k+1)n1^n + 2^n + \dotsb + k^n = (k+1)^n.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1812.06566,
  title  = {Primary Pseudoperfect Numbers, Arithmetic Progressions, and the Erd\H{o}s-Moser Equation},
  author = {Jonathan Sondow and Kieren MacMillan},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1812.06566},
  year   = {2018}
}

Comments

7 pages, 1 table

R2 v1 2026-06-23T06:44:03.644Z