Related papers: Browkin's discriminator conjecture

For a positive integer $n$ let $\mathfrak{P}_n=\prod_{s_p(n)\ge p} p,$ where $p$ runs over all primes and $s_p(n)$ is the sum of the base $p$ digits of $n$. For all $n$ we prove that $\mathfrak{P}_n$ is divisible by all "small" primes with…

Let $k \ge 2$ be a fixed integer. We define the multiplicative function $D_k(n) = d_k(n)/d_k^*(n)$, such that $d_k(n)$ is the Piltz divisor function and $d_k^*(n) = k^{\omega(n)}$ is its unitary analogue, where $\omega(n)$ is the number of…

We obtain an asymptotic formula for the average value of the divisor function over the integers $n \le x$ in an arithmetic progression $n \equiv a \pmod q$, where $q=p^k$ for a prime $p\ge 3$ and a sufficiently large integer $k$. In…

We consider the values taken by $n\times n$ circulant determinants with integer entries when $n$ is the product of two distinct odd primes $p,q$. These correspond to the integer group determinants for $\mathbb Z_{pq}$, the cyclic group of…

In 1876, Edouard Lucas showed that if an integer $b$ exists such that $b^{n-1} \equiv 1 (\mathrm{mod} \ n)$ and $b^{(n-1)/p} \not\equiv 1( \mathrm{mod} \ n)$ for all prime divisors $p$ of $n-1$ , then $n$ is prime, a result known as Lucas's…

A conjecture of Erd\H{o}s states that, for any large prime $q$, every reduced residue class $\pmod q$ can be represented as a product $p_1p_2$ of two primes $p_1,p_2\leq q$. We establish a ternary version of this conjecture, showing that,…

We use the Bateman--Horn Conjecture from number theory to give strong evidence of a positive answer to Peter Neumann's question, whether there are infinitely many simple groups of order a product of six primes. (Those with fewer than six…

In this paper we show that for every positive integer $n$ there exists a prime number in the interval $[n,9(n+3)/8]$. Based on this result, we prove that if $a$ is an integer greater than 1, then for every integer $n>14.4a$ there are at…

In 1927, Artin conjectured that any integer other than -1 or a perfect square generates the multiplicative group $\mathbb{Z}/p\mathbb{Z}^\times$ for infinitely many $p$. In \cite{MoSt}, Moree and Stevenhagen considered a two-variable…

If $a$ and $d$ are relatively prime, we refer to the set of integers congruent to $a$ mod $d$ as an `eligible' arithmetic progression. A theorem of Dirichlet says that every eligible arithmetic progression contains infinitely many primes;…

We extend the Main Theorem of Aschbacher and Smith on Quillen's Conjecture from $p>5$ to the remaining odd primes $p = 3,5$. In the process, we develop further combinatorial and homotopical methods for studying the poset of nontrivial…

A primitive root modulo an integer $n$ is the generator of the multiplicative group of integers modulo $n$. Gauss proved that for any prime number $p$ greater than $3$, the sum of its primitive roots is congruent to $1$ modulo $p$ while its…

Dris conjectured in his masters thesis that the inequality $q^k < n$ always holds, if $N = {q^k}{n^2}$ is an odd perfect number with special prime $q$. In this note, we initially show that either of the two conditions $n < q^k$ or…

We study the average value of the divisor function $\tau(n)$ for $n\le x$ with $n \equiv a \bmod q$. The divisor function is known to be evenly distributed over arithmetic progressions for all $q$ that are a little smaller than $x^{2/3}$.…

A set of positive integers is primitive (or 1-primitive) if no member divides another. Erd\H{o}s proved in 1935 that the weighted sum $\sum1/(n \log n)$ for $n$ ranging over a primitive set $A$ is universally bounded over all choices for…

Ordinary binary multiplication of natural numbers can be generalized in a non-trivial way to a ternary operation by considering discrete volumes of lattice hexagons. With this operation, a natural notion of `3-primality' -- primality with…

We consider the following $q$-analog of the basic combinatorial search problem: let $q$ be a prime power and $\GF(q)$ the finite field of $q$ elements. Let $V$ denote an $n$-dimensional vector space over $\GF(q)$ and let $\mathbf{v}$ be an…

Let $(b_n) = (b_1, b_2, ...)$ be a sequence of integers. A primitive prime divisor of a term $b_k$ is a prime which divides $b_k$ but does not divide any of the previous terms of the sequence. A zero orbit of a polynomial $f(z)$ is a…

In this article, we establish a sufficient condition for the existence of a primitive element $\alpha \in {\mathbb{F}_{q^n}}$ such that the element $\alpha+\alpha^{-1}$ is also a primitive element of ${\mathbb{F}_{q^n}},$ and…

In this paper we confirm three conjectures of Z.-W. Sun on determinants. We first show that any odd integer $n>3$ divides the determinant $$\left|(i^2+dj^2)\left(\frac{i^2+dj^2}n\right)\right|_{0\le i,j\le (n-1)/2},$$ where $d$ is any…