Related papers: A note on the number of Egyptian fractions

An Egyptian fraction is a sum of the form $1/n_1 + \cdots + 1/n_r$ where $n_1, \dots, n_k$ are distinct positive integers. We prove explicit lower bounds for the cardinality of the set $E_N$ of rational numbers that can be represented by…

The number of solutions of the diophantine equation $\sum_{i=1}^k \frac{1}{x_i}=1,$ in particular when the $x_i$ are distinct odd positive integers is investigated. The number of solutions $S(k)$ in this case is, for odd $k$: \[\exp \left(…

Let $T_o(k)$ denote the number of solutions of $\sum_{i=1}^k\frac 1{x_i}=1$ in odd numbers $1<x_1<x_2<...<x_k$. It is clear that $T_o(2k)=0$. For distinct primes $p_1, p_2,..., p_t$, let $S(p_1, p_2,...,…

We show the existence of a constant $c > 0$ such that, for all positive integers $n$, there exist integers $1 \leq a_1 < \ldots < a_k \leq n$ such that there are at least $cn^2$ distinct integers of the form $\sum_{i=u}^{v}a_i$ with $1 \leq…

Given a positive integer $n$ we let $A_k(n)$ be the number of positive integers $a$ such that $\frac{a}{n}=\frac{1}{m_1}+\frac{1}{m_2}+\cdots+\frac{1}{m_k}$ for some $m_1,m_2,\ldots,m_k\in {\mathbb N}$. We show that $x(\log x)^3\ll…

An Egyptian fraction is a sum of distinct unit fractions (reciprocals of positive integers). We show that every rational number has Egyptian fraction representations where the number of terms is of the same order of magnitude as the largest…

Let $n,d$, and $k$ be positive integers where $n$ and $d$ are coprime. Our two main results are Theorem 1. There is a partition of the infinite interval $[kd,\infty)$ of positive integers into a family of finite sets $X$ for which the sum…

For k>=3 let A \subset [1,N] be a set not containing a solution to a_1 x_1+...+a_k x_k=a_1 x_{k+1}+...+a_k x_{2k} in distinct integers. We prove that there is an epsilon>0 depending on the coefficients of the equation such that every such A…

As a well-known enumerative problem, the number of solutions of the equation $m=m_1+...+m_k$ with $m_1\leqslant...\leqslant m_k$ in positive integers is $\Pi(m,k)=\sum_{i=0}^k\Pi(m-k,i)$ and $\Pi$ is called the additive partition function.…

Answering a question of Erd\H{o}s and Graham, we show that for each fixed positive rational number $x$ the number of ways to write $x$ as a sum of reciprocals of distinct positive integers each at most $n$ is $2^{(c_x + o(1))n}$ for an…

We find a polynomial in three variables whose values at nonnegative integers satisfy the Erd\H{o}s-Straus Conjecture. Although the perfect squares are not covered by these values, it allows us to prove that there are arbitrarily long…

For given positive integers $n$ and $a$, let $R(n;\,a)$ denote the number of positive integer solutions $(x,\,y)$ of the Diophantine equation $$ {a\over n}={1\over x}+{1\over y}. $$ Write $$ S(N;\,a)=\sum_{\substack{n\leq N…

We show that for every $0 < \epsilon \leq 1$ and integer $k\geq 1$, there exists an integer $n = n(\epsilon,k)$ so that for all primes $p$, and integers $0 \leq a \leq p-1$, there exist integers $1 \leq x_1 < ... < x_n \leq p^\epsilon$ such…

Every positive rational number has representations as Egyptian fractions (sums of reciprocals of distinct positive integers) with arbitrarily many terms and with arbitrarily large denominators. However, such representations normally use a…

For any integer $N \geq 1$, let $\mathfrak{E}_N$ be the set of all Egyptian fractions employing denominators less than or equal to $N$. We give upper and lower bounds for the cardinality of $\mathfrak{E}_N$, proving that $$ \frac{N}{\log N}…

Let $k\ge 2$ and $a_1, a_2, \cdots, a_k$ be positive integers with \[ \gcd(a_1, a_2, \cdots, a_k)=1. \] It is proved that there exists a positive integer $G_{a_1, a_2, \cdots, a_k}$ such that every integer $n$ strictly greater than it can…

We improve upon a result of Steinerberger (2024) by demonstrating that for any fixed $k \in \mathbb{N}$ and sufficiently large $n$, there exist integers $1 \leq a_1, \dots, a_k \leq n$ satisfying: \begin{align*} 0 < \left\| \sum_{j=1}^{k}…

For $x>0$ let $\pi(x)$ denote the number of primes not exceeding $x$. For integers $a$ and $m>0$, we determine when there is an integer $n>1$ with $\pi(n)=(n+a)/m$. In particular, we show that for any integers $m>2$ and $a\le\lceil…

We show that for each n-tuple of positive rational integers (a_1,..,a_n) there are sets of primes S of arbitrarily large cardinality s such that the solutions of the equation a_1x_1+...+a_nx_n=1 with the x_i all S-units are not contained in…

For integers $2 \leq t \leq k$, we consider a collection of $k$ set families $\mathcal{A}_j: 1 \leq j \leq k$ where $\mathcal{A}_j = \{ A_{j,i} \subseteq [n] : 1 \leq i \leq m \}$ and $|A_{1, i_1} \cap \cdots \cap A_{k,i_k}|$ is even if and…