English

Underapproximation by Egyptian fractions

Number Theory 2022-12-14 v2

Abstract

An increasing sequence (xi)i=1n(x_i)_{i=1}^n of positive integers is an nn-term Egyptian underapproximation of θ(0,1]\theta \in (0,1] if i=1n1xi<θ\sum_{i=1}^n \frac{1}{x_i} < \theta. A greedy algorithm constructs an nn-term underapproximation of θ\theta. For some but not all numbers θ\theta, the greedy algorithm gives a unique best nn-term underapproximation for all nn. An infinite set of rational numbers is constructed for which the greedy underapproximations are best, and numbers for which the greedy algorithm is not best are also studied.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2202.00191,
  title  = {Underapproximation by Egyptian fractions},
  author = {Melvyn B. Nathanson},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2202.00191},
  year   = {2022}
}

Comments

20 pages, minor corrections

R2 v1 2026-06-24T09:12:22.055Z