Related papers: On the critical exponent for $k$-primitive sets
We consider Artin's conjecture on primitive roots over a number field $K$, reducing an algebraic number $\alpha\in K^\times$. Under the Generalised Riemann Hypothesis, there is a density ${\mathrm{dens}}(\alpha)$ counting the proportion of…
We prove lower bounds of the form $\gg N/(\log N)^{3/2}$ for the number of primes up to $N$ primitively represented by a shifted positive definite integral binary quadratic form, and under the additional condition that primes are from an…
Let $k\ge 2$ and $\Pi(n)=\prod_{i=1}^k(a_in+b_i)$ for some integers $a_i, b_i$ ($1\le i\le k$). Suppose that $\Pi(n)$ has no fixed prime divisors. Weighted sieves have shown for infinitely many integers $n$ that $\Omega(\Pi(n))\le r_k$…
We show that the Schur polynomials in all primitive $n$th roots of unity are $1$, $0$, or $-1$, if $n$ has at most two distinct odd prime factors. This result can be regarded as a generalization of properties of the coefficients of the…
An open conjecture of Z.-W. Sun states that for any integer $n>1$ there is a positive integer $k\le n$ such that $\pi(kn)$ is prime, where $\pi(x)$ denotes the number of primes not exceeding $x$. In this paper, we show that for any positive…
Let $H(n) = \prod_{p|n}\frac{p}{p-1}$ where $p$ ranges over the primes which divide $n$. It is well known that if $n$ is a primitive non-deficient number, then $H(n) > 2$. We examine inequalities of the form $H(n)> 2 + f(n)$ for various…
We give a short and elementary argument answering a question of Erd\H{o}s and Ingham negatively. Erd\H{o}s and Ingham showed that a Tauberian estimate they considered was equivalent to the non-vanishing of $1+\sum_{k}a_k^{-1-it}$ for any…
Fix an integer $g \neq -1$ that is not a perfect square. In 1927, Artin conjectured that there are infinitely many primes for which $g$ is a primitive root. Forty years later, Hooley showed that Artin's conjecture follows from the…
Let $p$ be a prime. If an integer $g$ generates a subgroup of index $t$ in $(\mathbb Z/p\mathbb Z)^*,$ then we say that $g$ is a $t$-near primitive root modulo $p$. We point out the easy result that each primitive residue class contains a…
Let F_k be the free group on k generators. A word w \in F_k is called primitive if it belongs to some basis of F_k. We investigate two criteria for primitivity, and consider more generally, subgroups of F_k which are free factors. The first…
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…
Let $\{a_1, . . . , a_n\}$ be a set of positive integers with $a_1 < \dots < a_n$ such that all $2^n$ subset sums are distinct. A famous conjecture by Erd\H{o}s states that $a_n>c\cdot 2^n$ for some constant $c$, while the best result known…
Let $\tau(n)$ be Ramanujan's tau function, defined by the discriminant modular form \[ \Delta(z) = q\prod_{j=1}^{\infty}(1-q^{j})^{24}\ =\ \sum_{n=1}^{\infty}\tau(n) q^n \,,q=e^{2\pi i z} \] (this is the unique holomorphic normalized…
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,…
A nonempty finite set of positive integers A is relatively prime if gcd(A) = 1 and it is relatively prime to n if gcd(A [ fng) = 1. The number of nonempty subsets of A which are relatively prime to n is \Phi(A, n) and the number of such…
In this article, we derive lower bounds for the number of distinct prime divisors of families of non-zero Fourier coefficients of non-CM primitive cusp forms and more generally of non-CM primitive Hilbert cusp forms. In particular, for the…
For any fixed $k\geq 2$, we prove that every sufficiently large integer can be expressed as the sum of a $k$th power of a prime and a number with at most $M(k)=6k$ prime factors. For sufficiently large $k$ we also show that one can take…
Bertrand's postulate establishes that for all positive integers $n>1$ there exists a prime number between $n$ and $2n$. We consider a generalization of this theorem as: for integers $n\geq k\geq 2$ is there a prime number between $kn$ and…
Let $f(n)$ count the number of subsets of $\{1,...,n\}$ without an element dividing another. In this paper I show that $f(n)$ grows like the $n$-th power of some real number, in the sense that $\lim_{n\rightarrow \infty}f(n)^{1/n}$ exists.…
Let $P_k$ be the subgroup generated by $k$th powers of primitive elements in $F_r$, the free group of rank $r$. We show that $F_2/P_k$ is finite if and only if $k$ is $1$, $2$, or $3$. We also fully characterize $F_2/P_k$ for $k = 2,3,4$.…