Related papers: The irrationality of a number theoretical series

For positive integers $k$ and $n$ let $\sigma_k(n)$ denote the sum of the $k$th powers of the divisors of $n$. Erd\H{o}s and Kac asked whether, for every $k$, the number $\alpha_k = \sum_{n\geq 1} \frac{\sigma_k(n)}{n!}$ is irrational. It…

We prove that the sum of the series $\sum_{n=0}^{\infty}\, p^{v_p(n!)}$ is a $p$-adic irrational for all primes $p$, where $v_p(n!)$ denotes the exponent of the highest power of $p$ dividing $n!$.

Let $\omega(n)$ denote the number of distinct prime factors of $n$. Assuming a suitably uniform version of the prime $k$-tuples conjecture, we show that the number \begin{align*} \sum_{n=1}^\infty \frac{\omega(n)}{2^n} \end{align*} is…

In this paper, we establish new irrationality criteria for certain sparse power series. As applications of these criteria, we generalize a result of Erd\H{o}s and obtain several irrationality results for various infinite series involving…

We prove the irrationality of some factorial series. To do so we combine methods from elementary and analytic number theory with methods from the theory of uniform distribution.

We present a new proof of the irrationality of values of the series $T_q(z)=\sum_{n=0}^\infty z^nq^{-n(n-1)/2}$ in both qualitative and quantitative forms. The proof is based on a hypergeometric construction of rational approximations to…

Let $d(n)$ denote the Dirichlet divisor function. Define \begin{equation*} \mathcal{S}_{k}(x)=\sum_{\substack{1\leqslant n_1,n_2,n_3 \leqslant x^{1/2} \\ 1\leqslant n_4\leqslant x^{1/k} }} d(n_1^2+n_2^2+n_3^2+n_4^k), \qquad 3\leqslant k\in…

Borwein, Bailey, and Girgensohn (2004) asked whether the following infinite series converges: the sum of $(\frac{2}{3} + \frac{1}{3} \sin n)^n / n$ over all positive integers $n$. We prove that their series converges. The proof uses the…

In this paper we review a general proof for the irrationality property of numbers which take a certain form of infinite sums.

Inspired by Cohen and te Riele~\cite{Cohen1996}, who computationally verified that for every $n \leq 400$ there exists $k$ such that $\sigma^k(n) \equiv 0 \pmod{n}$ (where $\sigma^k$ denotes the $k$-fold iteration of the sum-of-divisors…

For any positive integer $n$, let $\sigma (n)$ be the sum of all positive divisors of $n.$ In this paper, it is proved that for every integer $ 1\leq k\leq 29,\ (k,30)=1, $ we have $$\sum_{n\leq K}\sigma(30n)>\sum_{n\leq K}\sigma(30n+k)$$…

Schinzel's Hypothesis H is a general conjecture in number theory on prime values of polynomials that generalizes, e.g., the twin prime conjecture and Dirichlet's theorem on primes in arithmetic progression. We prove an arithmetic analog of…

In this note we present some results concerning the unirationality of the algebraic variety $\cal{S}_{f}$ given by the equation \begin{equation*} N_{K/k}(X_{1}+\alpha X_{2}+\alpha^2 X_{3})=f(t), \end{equation*} where $k$ is a number field,…

This paper investigates the dynamics of the iterated sum-of-divisors function $\sigma_k(m)$ and its behaviour modulo $m$, motivated by classical questions on perfect and multiperfect numbers and by the congruences $\sigma_k(m) \equiv 0…

In this paper, we prove two conjectures of Z.-W. Sun: $$2n\binom{2n}n\big|\sum_{k=0}^{n-1}(3k+1)\binom{2k}k^3{16}^{n-1-k}\ \mbox{for}\ \mbox{all}\ n=2,3,\cdots,$$ and $$\sum_{k=0}^{(p-1)/2}\frac{3k+1}{16^k}\binom{2k}{k}^3\equiv…

We consider the real number $\sigma$ with continued fraction expansion $[a_0, a_1, a_2,\ldots] = [1,2,1,4,1,2,1,8,1,2,1,4,1,2,1,16,\ldots]$, where $a_i$ is the largest power of $2$ dividing $i+1$. We compute the irrationality measure of…

For $k$ a positive integer let $S_k(n) = 1^k + 2^k + \cdots + n^k$, i.e., $S_k(n)$ is the sum of the first $k$-th powers. Faulhaber conjectured (later proved by Jacobi) that for $k$ odd, $S_k(n)$ could be written as a polynomial of…

Let $S_k(m):=1^k+2^k+\cdots+(m-1)^k$ denote a power sum. In 2011 Bernd Kellner formulated the conjecture that for $m\ge 4$ the ratio $S_k(m+1)/S_k(m)$ of two consecutive power sums is never an integer. We will develop some techniques that…

Khnichin's theorem is a surprising and still relatively little known result. It can be used as a specific criterion for determining whether or not any given number is irrational. In this paper we apply this theorem as well as the…

We show that if $F(s)$ is a nondegenerate ordinary Dirichlet series with nonnegative coefficients and $F(k)$ is a rational number for all large enough positive integers $k$, then the denominators of those rational numbers are unbounded. In…