Related papers: On further questions regarding unit fractions
We show that for every positive integer $k$ there are positive constants $C$ and $c$ such that if $A$ is a subset of $\{1, 2, \dots, n\}$ of size at least $C n^{1/k}$, then, for some $d \leq k-1$, the set of subset sums of $A$ contains a…
We improve on previous upper bounds for the $q$th norm of the partial sums of the Riemann zeta function on the half line when $0<q\leqslant 1$. In particular, we show that the 1-norm is bounded above by $(\log N)^{1/4}(\log\log N)^{1/4}$.
This paper makes a fundamental assertion about the Erd\H{o}s-Straus conjecture. Suppose that for a prime $p$ there exists $x,y,z \in \mathbb{N}$ with $x \leq y \leq z$ so that $$ \frac{4}{p} = \frac{1}{x} + \frac{1}{y} + \frac{1}{z}. $$ The…
We investigate a fifty-year-old conjecture of Erd\H{o}s and Graham concerning whether the binomial coefficient ${n \choose k}$ with $1 \leq k \leq \frac{n}{2}$ must always have a divisor $\leq n$ that is ``close'' to $n$: that is, bigger…
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…
By using the Rodriguez-Villegas-Mortenson supercongruences, we prove four supercongruences on sums involving binomial coefficients, which were originally conjectured by Sun. We also confirm a related conjecture of Guo on integer-valued…
In this note we shall give conditions which guarantee that $\frac{1-q^b}{1-q^a}{n\brack m}\in\mathbb{Z}[q]$ holds. We shall provide a full characterisation for $\frac{1-q^b}{1-q^a}{ka\brack m}\in\mathbb{Z}[q]$. This unifies a variety of…
Let $A\subseteq [N]$ be such that for any pair of distinct subsets $B,C\subset A$, the products $\prod_{b\in B}b$ and $\prod_{c\in C}c$ are distinct. We prove that $|A|\leq \pi(N)+\pi(N^{1/2})+o(\pi(N^{1/2}))$, where $\pi$ is the prime…
Motivated by questions in number theory, Myerson asked how small the sum of 5 complex nth roots of unity can be. We obtain a uniform bound of O(n^{-4/3}) by perturbing the vertices of a regular pentagon, improving to O(n^{-7/3}) infinitely…
In number theory, the Erdos-Straus conjecture states that for all n >=2, the rational number 4/n can be expressed as the sum of three unit fractions. Paul Erdos and Ernst G. Straus formulated the conjecture in 1948. The restriction that the…
Suppose that A is a subset of {1,...,N} such that the difference between any two elements of A is never one less than a prime. We show that |A| = O(N exp(-c(log N)^{1/4})) for some absolute c>0.
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…
Let $k$ be a real abelian number field and $p$ an odd prime not dividing $[k:\mathbb{Q}]$. For a natural number $d$, let $E_d$ denote the group of units of $k$ congruent to $1$ modulo $d$, $C_d$ the subgroup of $d$-circular units of $E_d$,…
For the partial sums $(S_n)$ of independent random variables we define a stochastic process $s_n(t):=(1/d_n)\sum_{k \le [nt]} ({S_k}/{k}-\mu)$ and prove that $$(1/{\log N})\sum_{n\le N}(1/n)\mathbf {I}\left\{s_n(t)\le x\right\} \to…
We are interested in ordering the elements of a subset A of the non-zero integers modulo n in such a way that all the partial sums are distinct. We conjecture that this can always be done and we prove various partial results about this…
Let ||.|| be a norm in R^d whose unit ball is B. Assume that V\subset B is a finite set of cardinality n, with \sum_{v \in V} v=0. We show that for every integer k with 0 \le k \le n, there exists a subset U of V consisting of k elements…
We answer several questions of P. Erdos and R. Graham by showing that for any rational number r > 0, there exist integers n1, n2, ..., nk, k variable, where N < n1 < n2 < ... < nk < (e^r + o_r(1) ) N, such that r = 1/n1 + 1/n2 + ... + 1/nk.…
Let $K$ be a number field with ring of integers $\mathcal{O}_K$. Let $\mathcal{N}_K$ be the set of positive integers $n$ such that there exist units $\varepsilon, \delta \in \mathcal{O}_K^\times$ satisfying $\varepsilon + \delta = n$. We…
We obtain an upper bound for the number of pairs $ (a,b) \in {A\times B} $ such that $ a+b $ is a prime number, where $ A, B \subseteq \{1,...,N \}$ with $|A||B| \, \gg \frac{N^2}{(\log {N})^2}$, $\, N \geq 1$ an integer. This improves on a…
We consider restricted sumsets over field $F$. Let\begin{align*}C=\{a_1+\cdots+a_n:a_1\in A_1,\ldots,a_n\in A_n, a_i-a_j\notin S_{ij}\ \text{if}\ i\not=j\},\end{align*} where $S_{ij}(1\leqslant i\not=j\leqslant n)$ are finite subsets of $F$…