Related papers: Smallest totient in a residue class
Let $\mathcal{P}_r$ denote an almost-prime with at most $r$ prime factors, counted according to multiplicity. Suppose that $a$ and $q$ are positive integers satisfying $(a,q)=1$. Denote by $\mathcal{P}_2(a,q)$ the least almost-prime…
For a function $f\colon \mathbb{N}\to\mathbb{N}$, let $$ N^+_f(x)=\{n\leq x: n=k+f(k) \mbox{ for some } k\}. $$ Let $\tau(n)=\sum_{d|n}1$ be the divisor function, $\omega(n)=\sum_{p|n}1$ be the prime divisor function, and…
In this work and its sister paper [5] we give a new proof of the famous Linnik theorem bounding the least prime in an arithmetic progression. Using sieve machinery in both papers, we are able to dipense with the log-free zero density bounds…
A solitary number is a positive integer that shares its abundancy index only with itself. $10$ is the smallest positive integer suspected to be solitary, but no proof has been established so far. In this paper, we prove that not all half of…
We consider the distribution in residue classes modulo primes $p$ of Euler's totient function $\phi(n)$ and the sum-of-proper-divisors function $s(n):=\sigma(n)-n$. We prove that the values $\phi(n)$, for $n\le x$, that are coprime to $p$…
For a nonnegative integer $n$, and a prime $\wp$ in $\mathbb{F}_q[T]$, we prove a result that provides a method for computing the number of integers $m$ with $0 \le m \le n$ for which the Carlitz binomial coefficients $\binom{n}{m}_C$ fall…
We consider small solutions of quadratic congruences of the form $x_1^2+\alpha_2x_2^2+\alpha_3x_3^2\equiv 0 \bmod{q}$, where $q=p^m$ is an odd prime power. Here, $\alpha_2$ is arbitrary but fixed and $\alpha_3$ is variable, and we assume…
Fix coprime natural numbers $a,q$. Assuming the Prime $k$-tuple Conjecture, we show that there exist arbitrarily long arithmetic progressions of Carmichael numbers, each of which lies in the reduced residue class $a$ mod $q$ and is a…
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…
For two odd primes $p$ and $q$ such that $p<q$, let $A(p,q):=(a_k)_{k=1}^{\infty}$ be the arithmetic progression whose $k$th term is given by $a_k=(k-1)(q-p)+p$ (i.e., with $a_1=p$ and $a_2=q$). Here we conjecture that for every positive…
For odd primes $p$ we consider the factors \[ A(p)=\frac{p-\chi_4(p)}{p+\chi_4(p)}, \qquad \chi_4(p)= \begin{cases} 1,&p\equiv 1\pmod 4, \\ -1,&p\equiv 3\pmod 4, \end{cases} \] and study products of $A(p)$ restricted to unions of residue…
Let p1, p2,..., pn be distinct prime numbers, and let Nn be their product. We prove that, for any positive integer L that is divisible by the least common multiple of p1 minus one, p2 minus one, and so on, and for integers a1, a2,..., an…
For positive integers $m$ and $n$, define $f(m,n)$ to be the smallest integer such that any subset $A$ of the $m \times n$ integer grid with $|A| \geq f(m,n)$ contains a rectangle; that is, there are $x\in [m]$ and $y \in [n]$ and…
It is known that there are infinitely many solutions to the inequality \phi(30n+1)<\phi(30n), where \phi is the familiar Euler totient function. However, there are no solutions with n<20,000,000, and computing a solution would seem to…
The Carmichael lambda function $\lambda(n)$ is defined to be the smallest positive integer $m$ such that $a^m$ is congruent to 1 modulo $n,$ for all $a$ and $n$ relatively prime. The function $\lambda_k(n)$ is defined to be the $k$th…
Given positive integers $a_1,\ldots,a_k$, we prove that the set of primes $p$ such that $p \not\equiv 1 \bmod{a_i}$ for $i=1,\ldots,k$ admits asymptotic density relative to the set of all primes which is at least $\prod_{i=1}^k…
For a prime number $p$ and a sequence of integers $a_0,\dots,a_k\in \{0,1,\dots,p\}$, let $s(a_0,\dots,a_k)$ be the minimum number of $(k+1)$-tuples $(x_0,\dots,x_k)\in A_0\times\dots\times A_k$ with $x_0=x_1+\dots + x_k$, over subsets…
Let p(n, k) denote the number of partitions of n into parts less than or equal to k. We show several properties of this function modulo 2. First, we prove that for fixed positive integers k and m, p(n,k) is periodic modulo m. Using this, we…
Let $\mu(n)$ be the M\"{o}bius function. Let $P^-(n)$ denote the smallest prime factor of an integer $n$. In 1977, Alladi established the following formula related to the prime number theorem for arithmetic progressions \[…
We continue our study of the density of the odd values of eta-quotients, here focusing on the $m$-regular partition functions $b_m$ for $m$ even. Based on extensive computational evidence, we propose an elegant conjecture which, in…