Related papers: Phi, Primorials, and Poisson

Let $f(n)=\min_{p} |n-p|$, where $p$ is a prime. We show that there is a positive constant $\delta$ such that for any large integer $N$ there exist two positive integers $n_1$ and $n_2$ such that $N=n_1 + n_2$ and $f(n_i)\gg \ln N (\ln\ln…

Let $U = (U_n)_{n \geq 0}$ be a Lucas sequence and, for every prime number $p$, let $\rho_U(p)$ be the rank of appearance of $p$ in $U$, that is, the smallest positive integer $k$ such that $p$ divides $U_k$, whenever it exists.…

It has been known since Vinogradov that, for irrational $\alpha$, the sequence of fractional parts $\{\alpha p\}$ is equidistributed in $\mathbb{R}/\mathbb{Z}$ as $p$ ranges over primes. There is a natural second-order equidistribution…

For a natural number $k>1$, let $f_k(n)$ denote the number of distinct representations of a natural number $n$ of the form $p^k+q^k$ for primes $p,q$. We prove that, for all $k>1$, $$\limsup_{n\to\infty}f_k(n)=\infty.$$ This positively…

Let $P(m)$ denote the largest prime factor of an integer $m\geq 2$, and put $P(0)=P(1)=1$. For an integer $k\geq 2$, let $(F_{n}^{(k)})_{n\geq 2-k}$ be the $k-$generalized Fibonacci sequence which starts with $0,...,0,1$ ($k$ terms) and…

For each positive integer $r$, let $S_r$ denote the $r^{th}$ Schemmel totient function, a multiplicative arithmetic function defined by \[S_r(p^{\alpha})=\begin{cases} 0, & \mbox{if } p\leq r; \\ p^{\alpha-1}(p-r), & \mbox{if } p>r…

Let $n, k$ and $a$ be positive integers. The Stirling numbers of the first kind, denoted by $s(n,k)$, count the number of permutations of $n$ elements with $k$ disjoint cycles. Let $p$ be a prime. In recent years, Lengyel, Komatsu and…

Let $N(x,y)$ denote the number of integers $n\le x$ which are divisible by a shifted prime $p-1$ with $p>y$, $p$ prime. Improving upon recent bounds of McNew, Pollack and Pomerance, we establish the exact order of growth of $N(x,y)$ for all…

This work proposes elementary proofs of several related primes counting problems, based on an elementary weighted sieve. The subsets of primes considered here are the followings: the subset of twin primes PT = {p and p + 2 are primes}, the…

Let $\phi(n)$ be the Euler totient function and $\sigma(n)$ denote the sum of divisors of $n$. In this note, we obtain explicit upper bounds on the number of positive integers $n\leq x$ such that $\phi(\sigma(n)) > cn$ for any $c>0$. This…

Let $P(x) \in \mathbb{Z}[x]$ be a polynomial. We give an easy and new proof of the fact that the set of primes $p$ such that $p \mid P(n)$, for some $n \in \mathbb{Z}$, is infinite. We also get analog of this result for some special…

When investigating the distribution of the Euler totient function, one encounters sets of primes P where if p is in P then r is in P for all r|(p-1). While it is easy to construct finite sets of such primes, the only infinite set known is…

An asymptotic formula for the number of $n \le x$ such that $n$ does not divide $P(n)!$ is given, where P(n) is the largest prime factor of $n$.

It is known that there are infinitely-many prime numbers which take the form of a polynomial of degree one with integer coefficients, this is Dirichlet's theorem. We use an elementary sieving argument together with bounds on the prime…

For various arithmetic functions $f:\mathbb{N} \to \mathbb{R}$, the behavior of $f(n!)$ and that of $\sum_{n\le N} f(n!)$ can be intriguing. For instance, for some functions $f$, we have ${f(n!)=\sum_{k\le n}f(k)}$, for others, we have…

In this work we show that the prime distribution is deterministic. Indeed the set of prime numbers P can be expressed in terms of two subsets of N using three specific selection rules, acting on two sets of prime candidates. The prime…

Euler function $\phi(n)$ is the number of positive integers less than $n$ and relatively prime to $n$. Suppose that $\phi^1(n)=\phi(n)$ and $\phi^i(n)=\phi(\phi^{i-1}(n))$. Let $A\subseteq \mathbb{N}$, and $A_{\phi}=\{ \phi^k(n)| n\in A ,…

The classical Poisson theorem says that if $\xi_1,\xi_2,...$ are i.i.d. 0--1 Bernoulli random variables taking on 1 with probability $p_n\equiv \la/n$ then the sum $S_n=\sum_{i=1}^n\xi_i$ is asymptotically in $n$ Poisson distributed with…

A nonempty subset A of {1,2,...,n} is called primitive if gcd(A)=1. Let f(n) and f_k(n) denote, respectively, the number of primitive subsets and the number of primitive subsets of cardinality k of {1,2,...,n}. Recursion formulas and…

We prove an asymptotic formula for the number of integers $\leq x$ which can be written as the product of $k ~(\geq 2)$ distinct primes $p_1\cdots p_k$ with each prime factor in an arithmetic progression $p_j\equiv a_j \bmod q$, $(a_j,…