English

Primitive sets with large counting functions

Number Theory 2010-10-28 v2

Abstract

A set of positive integers is said to be primitive if no element of the set is a multiple of another. If SS is a primitive set and S(x)S(x) is the number of elements of SS not exceeding xx, then a result of Erd\H os implies that 2(S(t)/t2logt)dt\int_2^\infty (S(t)/t^2\log t) dt converges. We establish an approximate converse to this theorem, showing that if FF satisfies some mild conditions and 2(F(t)/t2logt)dt\int_2^\infty (F(t)/t^2\log t) dt converges, then there exists a primitive set SS with S(x)F(x)S(x) \gg F(x).

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1009.1014,
  title  = {Primitive sets with large counting functions},
  author = {Greg Martin and Carl Pomerance},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1009.1014},
  year   = {2010}
}

Comments

7 pages. Revision includes a strengthening of Theorem 1: an upper bound for S(x) of the same order of magnitude as the lower bound is now established

R2 v1 2026-06-21T16:09:54.631Z