Related papers: The birthday boy problem
we derive new, improved lower bounds for the block complexity of an irrational algebraic number and for the number of digit changes in the b-ary expansion of an irrational algebraic number. To this end, we apply a quantitative version of…
Irrational numbers are introduced usually already introduced in lower secondary level schools. But typically, maybe with the exception of $\sqrt{2}$, no mathematical proof of irrationality is provided. In particular it is not proven that…
A birthday surprise is the event that, given k uniformly random samples from a sample space of size n, at least two of them are identical. We show that Bernoulli numbers can be used to derive arbitrarily exact bounds on the probability of a…
Inspired by a problem proposed by Mahler, we will address the following related question, 'How well can irrationals in a missing digit set be approximated by rationals with polynomial denominators?' and prove some related results. To…
In 1969, H. Davenport and W. M. Schmidt studied the problem of approximation to a real number \xi by algebraic integers of degree at most three. They did so, using geometry of numbers, by resorting to the dual problem of finding…
This survey text deals with irrationality, and linear independence over the rationals, of values at positive odd integers of Riemann zeta function. The first section gives all known proofs (and connections between them) of Ap\'ery's Theorem…
The aim of this paper is to present a comprehensive survey of cubic Fibonacci identities, trying to uncover as many as possible. From the outset, our rationale for a very careful search on an apparently obscure problem was not only a matter…
We revisit the Strong Birthday Problem (SBP) introduced by DasGupta'05, which asks for the minimum population n required such that, with a probability of at least 1/2, every individual in the group shares a birthday with at least one other…
Studying the existence of rational functions with given branching datum is a classical problem in the field of complex analysis and algebraic geometry. This problem dates back to Hurwitz and remains open to this day. In this paper, we…
The analogue of Hilbert's tenth problem over $\mathbb{Q}$ asks for an algorithm to decide the existence of rational points in algebraic varieties over this field. This remains as one of the main open problems in the area of undecidability…
A famous problem posed by Diophantus was to find sets of distinct positive rational numbers such that the product of any two is one less than a rational square. Some sets of six such numbers are presented and the computational algorithm…
Rationals are known to form interesting and computationally rich structures, such as Farey sequences and infinite trees. Little attention is being paid to more general, systematic exposition of the basic properties of fractions as a set.…
Incomplete observability of data generates an identification problem. There is no panacea for missing data. What one can learn about a population parameter depends on the assumptions one finds credible to maintain. The credibility of…
We present a hypergeometric construction of rational approximations to $\zeta(2)$ and $\zeta(3)$ which allows one to demonstrate simultaneously the irrationality of each of the zeta values, as well as to estimate from below certain linear…
An important component of Ap\'ery's proof that $\zeta (3)$ is irrational involves representing $\zeta (3)$ as the limit of the quotient of two rational solutions to a three-term recurrence. We present various approaches to such Ap\'ery…
In this paper, we explore several threads arising from our recent joint work on arithmetic holonomy bounds, which were originally devised to prove new irrationality results based on the method of Ap\'ery limits. We propose a new method to…
In math.NT/0307308 we defined the irrationality base of an irrational number and, assuming a stronger hypothesis than the irrationality of Euler's constant, gave a conditional upper bound on its irrationality base. Here we develop the…
It is a classical fact that the irrationality of a number $\xi\in\mathbb R$ follows from the existence of a sequence $p_n/q_n$ with integral $p_n$ and $q_n$ such that $q_n\xi-p_n\ne0$ for all $n$ and $q_n\xi-p_n\to0$ as $n\to\infty$. In…
It is known that the continued fraction expansion of a real number is periodic if and only if the number is a quadratic irrational. In an attempt to generalize this phenomenon to other settings, Jun-Ichi Tamura and Shin-Ichi Yasutomi have…
We address the problem of estimating the effect of intervening on a set of variables X from experiments on a different set, Z, that is more accessible to manipulation. This problem, which we call z-identifiability, reduces to ordinary…