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The Probability of Choosing Primitive Sets

Number Theory 2015-05-08 v1 Combinatorics Probability

Abstract

We generalize a theorem of Nymann that the density of points in Z^d that are visible from the origin is 1/zeta(d), where zeta(a) is the Riemann zeta function 1/1^a + 1/2^a + 1/3^a + ... A subset S of Z^d is called primitive if it is a Z-basis for the lattice composed of the integer points in the R-span of S, or, equivalently, if S can be completed to a Z-basis of Z^d. We prove that if m points in Z^d are chosen uniformly and independently at random from a large box, then as the size of the box goes to infinity, the probability that the points form a primitive set approaches 1/[\zeta(d)\zeta(d-1)...zeta(d-m+1)].

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.math/0607390,
  title  = {The Probability of Choosing Primitive Sets},
  author = {Sergi Elizalde and Kevin Woods},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:math/0607390},
  year   = {2015}
}

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11 pages