Related papers: Browkin's discriminator conjecture
Let b be an odd integer such that b=+/-1 (mod 8) and let q be a prime with primitive root 2 such that q does not divide b. We show that if (p(k)) is a sequence of odd primes, with 0<=k<=q-2 such that p(k)=2p(k-1)+b for all 1<=k<=q-2, then…
A positive integer n is called a covering number if there are some distinct divisors n_1,...,n_k of n greater than one and some integers a_1,...,a_k such that Z is the union of the residue classes a_1(mod n_1),...,a_k(mod n_k). A covering…
Polignac [1] conjectured that for every even natural number $2k (k\geq1)$, there exist infinitely many consecutive primes $p_n$ and $p_{n+1}$ such that $p_{n+1}-p_n=2k$. A weakened form of this conjecture states that for every $k\geq1$,…
Let $p_{1}$, ..., $p_{k}$ be the first $k$ odd primes in succession. Let $n$ be an even integer such that $n > p_{k}$. We conjecture that if none of $n - p_{1}$, ..., $n - p_{k}$ are prime, then at least one of them has a prime factor which…
For a class of Lucas sequences ${x_n}$, we show that if $n$ is a positive integer then $x_n$ has a primitive prime factor which divides $x_n$ to an odd power, except perhaps when $n = 1, 2, 3 or 6$. This has several desirable consequences.
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…
For $n=1,2,3,\ldots$ let $S_n$ be the sum of the first $n$ primes. We mainly show that the sequence $a_n=\root n\of{S_n/n}\ (n=1,2,3,\ldots)$ is strictly decreasing, and moreover the sequence $a_{n+1}/a_n\ (n=10,11,\ldots)$ is strictly…
In 1927, E. Artin conjectured that all non-square integers $a\neq -1$ are a primitive root of $\mathbb{F}_p$ for infinitely many primes $p$. In 1967, Hooley showed that this conjecture follows from the Generalized Riemann Hypothesis (GRH).…
Hasanalizade [1] studied Deaconescu's conjecture for positive composite integer $n$. A positive composite integer $n\geq4$ is said to be a Deaconescu number if $S_2(n)\mid \phi(n)-1$. In this paper, we improve Hasanalizade's result by…
Let $p_n$ be $n$th prime, and let $(S_n)_{n=1}^\infty:=(S_n)$ be the sequence of the sums of the first $2n$ consecutive primes, that is, $S_n=\sum_{k=1}^{2n}p_k$ with $n=1,2,\ldots$. Heuristic arguments supported by the corresponding…
In this paper we study the factors of some alternating sums of products of binomial and q-binomial coefficients. We prove that for all positive integers n_1,...,n_m, n_{m+1}=n_1, and 0\leq j\leq m-1, {n_1+n_{m}\brack…
Let $q\geq 2$ and denote by $s_q$ the sum-of-digits function in base $q$. For $j=0,1,...,q-1$ consider $$# \{0 \le n < N : \;\;s_q(2n) \equiv j \pmod q \}.$$ In 1983, F. M. Dekking conjectured that this quantity is greater than $N/q$ and,…
For coprime positive integers $q$ and $e$, let $m(q,e)$ denote the least positive integer $t$ such that there exists a sum of $t$ powers of $q$ which is divisible by $e$. We prove an upper bound for $m(q.e)$ and investigate the case where…
A primorial prime is a prime number of the form $p_n\# \pm 1$ where $p_n\#$ denotes the product of all primes less than or equal to $p_{n}$, the $n$-th prime. We show that the probability along the lines of Mertens' Theorem that either…
The enumeration $d_k(n)$ of $k$-elongated plane partition diamonds has emerged as a generalization of the classical integer partition function $p(n)$. Congruences for $d_k(n)$ modulo certain powers of primes have been proven via elementary…
The $n$th Ramanujan prime is the smallest positive integer $R_n$ such that for all $x \geq R_n$ the interval $(x/2, x]$ contains at least $n$ primes. In this paper we undertake a study of the sequence $(\pi(R_n))_{n \in \mathbb{N}}$, which…
Given positive integers $q,n,m$ and $a\in\mathbb{F}_{q}$, where $q$ is an odd prime power and $n\geq 5$, we investigate the existence of a primitive normal pair $(\epsilon,f(\epsilon))$ in $\mathbb{F}_{q^{n}}$ over $\mathbb{F}_{q}$ such…
In this paper, we study a special kind of factorization of $x^n+1$ over $\mathbb{F}_q, $ with $q$ a prime power $\equiv 3~({\rm mod}~4)$ when $n=2p,$ with $p\equiv 3~({\rm mod}~4)$ and $p$ is a prime. Given such a $q$ infinitely many such…
We consider primitive divisors of terms of integer sequences defined by quadratic polynomials. Apart from some small counterexamples, when a term has a primitive divisor, that primitive divisor is unique. It seems likely that the number of…
We study additive properties of consecutive prime numbers and the primality of the sums they generate. For a given prime number $p_n$, we consider the sums \[ S_k(p_n) = p_n + p_{n+1} + \cdots + p_{n+k-1}, \] where $k \ge 3$ is an odd…