English

Product representations of perfect powers

Combinatorics 2026-01-13 v1 Number Theory

Abstract

Let ρk(N)\rho_k(N) denote the maximum size of a set A{1,2,,N}A\subseteq \{1,2,\dots,N\} such that no product of kk distinct elements of AA is a perfect dd-th power. In this short note, we prove that ρd(N)=k=1d1π(Nk)+Od(π(N1/2))\rho _d(N)=\sum\limits_{k=1}^{d-1}\pi\left( \frac{N}{k} \right) +O_d(\pi (N^{1/2})), furthermore, for prime power dd and sufficiently large NN we have ρd(N)=k=1d1π(Nk)\rho _d(N)=\sum\limits_{k=1}^{d-1}\pi\left( \frac{N}{k} \right). This answers a question of Verstra\"ete.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2601.07000,
  title  = {Product representations of perfect powers},
  author = {Péter Pál Pach and Csaba Sándor},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2601.07000},
  year   = {2026}
}
R2 v1 2026-07-01T08:59:43.556Z