Related papers: Salajan's conjecture on discriminating terms in an…
Let $q\ge 5$ be a prime and put $q^*=(-1)^{(q-1)/2}\cdot q$. We consider the integer sequence $u_q(1),u_q(2),\ldots,$ with $u_q(j)=(3^j-q^*(-1)^j)/4$. No term in this sequence is repeated and thus for each $n$ there is a smallest integer…
The discriminator of an integer sequence s = (s(i))_{i>=0}, introduced by Arnold, Benkoski, and McCabe in 1985, is the function D_s(n) that sends n to the least integer m such that the numbers s(0), s(1), ..., s(n-1) are pairwise…
Given a sequence of distinct positive integers $w_0 , w_1, w_2, \ldots$ and any positive integer $n$, we define the discriminator function $\mathcal{D}_{\bf w}(n)$ to be the smallest positive integer $m$ such that $w_0,\ldots, w_{n-1}$ are…
The family of Shallit sequences consists of the Lucas sequences satisfying the recurrence $U_{n+2}(k)=(4k+2)U_{n+1}(k) -U_n(k),$ with initial values $U_0(k)=0$ and $U_1(k)=1$ and with $k\ge 1$ arbitrary. For every fixed $k$ the integers…
The discriminator of an integer sequence s = (s(i))_{i >=0}, introduced by Arnold, Benkoski, and McCabe in 1985, is the map D_s(n) that sends n >= 1 to the least positive integer m such that the n numbers s(0), s(1), ..., s(n-1) are…
We consider the family of Lucas sequences uniquely determined by $U_{n+2}(k)=(4k+2)U_{n+1}(k) -U_n(k),$ with initial values $U_0(k)=0$ and $U_1(k)=1$ and $k\ge 1$ an arbitrary integer. For any integer $n\ge 1$ the discriminator function…
The discriminator of an integer sequence $\textbf{s} = (s(i))_{i \geq 0}$, introduced by Arnold, Benkoski, and McCabe in 1985, is the function $D_{\textbf{s}} (n)$ that sends $n$ to the least integer $m$ such that the numbers $s(0), s(1),…
Given $f \in \mathbb{Z}[x]$ and $n \in \mathbb{Z^{+}}$, the $\emph{discriminator}$ $D_f(n)$ is the smallest positive integer $m$ such that $f(1), \ldots, f(n)$ are distinct mod $m$. In a recent paper, Z.-W. Sun proved that $D_f(n) =…
We study the discriminants of the minimal polynomials $\mathcal{P}_n$ of the Ramanujan $t_n$ class invariants, which are defined for positive integers $n\equiv11\pmod{24}$. The historical precedent for doing so comes from Gross and Zagier,…
For a set of positive integers $D$, a $k$-term $D$-diffsequence is a sequence of positive integers $a_1<a_2<\cdots<a_k$ such that $a_i-a_{i-1}\in D$ for $i=2,3,\cdots,k$. For $k\in\mathbb{Z}^+$ and $D\subset \mathbb{Z}^+$, we define…
The average value of the smallest denominator of a rational number belonging to the interval $](j-1)/N,j/N]$, where~$j=1,\dots, N$, is proved to be asymptotically equivalent to~$16\pi^{-2}\sqrt{N}$, when $N$ tends to infinity. The result…
This work shows that the smallest natural number $d_n$ that is not the determinant of some $n\times n$ binary matrix is at least $c\,2^n/n$ for $c=1/201$. That same quantity naturally lower bounds the number of distinct integers $D_n$ which…
Let $1=d_{1}<d_{2}< \cdots < d_{\tau(n)}=n$ denote the ordered sequence of the positive divisors of an integer $n$. We are interested in estimating the arithmetic function $$ V(n) := \prod_{1 \le i < j \le \tau(n)}(d_{j}-d_{i}) \quad (n \ge…
Let $\Delta(n)$ denote the smallest positive integer $m$ such that $a^3+a(1\le a\le n)$ are pairwise distinct modulo $m$. The purpose of this paper is to determine $\Delta(n)$ for all positive integers $n$.
Let n be a non-null positive integer and $d(n)$ is the number of positive divisors of n, called the divisor function. Of course, $d(n) \leq n$. $d(n) = 1$ if and only if $n = 1$. For $n > 2$ we have $d(n) \geq 2$ and in this paper we try to…
The Smarandache function of a positive integer $n$, denoted by $S(n)$, is defined to be the smallest positive integer $j$ such that $n$ divides the factorial $j!$. In this note, we prove that for any fixed number $k > 1$, the inequality…
Let $H_n$ be the $n$-th harmonic number and let $v_n$ be its denominator. It is well known that $v_n$ is even for every integer $n\ge 2$. In this paper, we study the properties of $v_n$. One of our results is: the set of positive integers…
The $n$th Ramanujan prime is the smallest positive integer $R_n$ such that if $x \ge R_n$, then there are at least $n$ primes in the interval $(x/2,x]$. For example, Bertrand's postulate is $R_1 = 2$. Ramanujan proved that $R_n$ exists and…
Let $D$ be a set of positive integers. A $D$-diffsequence of length $k$ is a sequence of positive integers $a_1 < \cdots < a_k$ such that $a_{i+1}-a_i\in D$ for $i=1,\ldots,k-1$. For $D=\{2^i\mid i\in \mathbb{Z}_{\ge 0}\}$, it is known that…
Let $S= \{ p_1, \ldots, p_s\}$ be a finite, non-empty set of distinct prime numbers and $(U_{n})_{n \geq 0}$ be a linear recurrence sequence of integers of order $r$. For any positive integer $k,$ we define $(U_j^{(k)})_{j\geq 1}$ an…