Related papers: The Oddtown problem modulo a composite number

We address a problem posed by Nathan Kaplan in the 2014 Combinatorial and Additive Number Theory session: finding the largest subset $H \subseteq (\mathbb{Z}/4\mathbb{Z})^n$ with no distinct $x, y, z \in H$ such that $x + y + z \equiv 0…

Let ${\mathfrak S}_n$ denote the symmetric group with $n$ letters, and $g(n)$ the maximal order of an element of ${\mathfrak S}_n$. If the standard factorization of $M$ into primes is $M=q_1^{\al_1}q_2^{\al_2}... q_k^{\al_k}$, we define…

Let $f(N)$ denote the least integer $k$ such that, if $G$ is an abelian group of order $N$ and $A \subseteq G$ is a uniformly random $k$-element subset, then with probability at least $\tfrac12$ the subset-sum set $\{ \sum_{x \in S} x : S…

We prove that there are infinitely many integers $n$ such that $n$ and $n+1$ have the same number of distinct prime divisors.

\textit{Matching families} are one of the major ingredients in the construction of {\em locally decodable codes} (LDCs) and the best known constructions of LDCs with a constant number of queries are based on matching families. The…

We prove that every partially ordered set on $n$ elements contains $k$ subsets $A_{1},A_{2},\dots,A_{k}$ such that either each of these subsets has size $\Omega(n/k^{5})$ and, for every $i<j$, every element in $A_{i}$ is less than or equal…

We obtain bounds on the number of triples that determine a given pair of dot products arising in a vector space over a finite field or a module over the set of integers modulo a power of a prime. More precisely, given $E\subset \mathbb…

Let $Q$ be a set of primes with relative density $\delta$. We count integers in $[1,x]$ with prime factors all in $Q$ that also have a divisor in $(y,2y]$. We establish the order of magnitude for all $\delta \in (0,1]$. This generalizes the…

For every odd prime $p$ and every integer $n\geq 12$ there is a Heisenberg group of order $p^{5n/4+O(1)}$ that has $p^{n^2/24+O(n)}$ pairwise nonisomorphic quotients of order $p^{n}$. Yet, these quotients are virtually indistinguishable.…

In the area of forbidden subposet problems we look for the largest possible size $La(n,P)$ of a family $\mathcal{F}\subseteq 2^{[n]}$ that does not contain a forbidden inclusion pattern described by $P$. The main conjecture of the area…

A set of integers greater than 1 is primitive if no element divides another. Erd\H{o}s proved in 1935 that the sum of $1/(n \log n)$ for $n$ running over a primitive set $A$ is universally bounded over all choices for $A$. In 1988 he asked…

We consider the periods of the linear congruential and the power generators modulo $n$ and, for fixed choices of initial parameters, give lower bounds that hold for ``most'' $n$ when $n$ ranges over three different sets: the set of primes,…

Let $G$ be a finite group, let $x \in G$, and let $p$ be a prime. We prove that the commutator $[x,g]$ is a $p$-element for every $g \in G$ if and only if $x$ is central modulo $\mathbf{O}_p(G)$, where $\mathbf{O}_p(G)$ denotes the largest…

Hasanalizade [1] studied Deaconescu's conjecture for positive composite integer $n$. A positive composite integer $n\geq4$ is said to be a Deaconescu number if $S_2(n)\mid \phi(n)-1$. In this paper, we improve Hasanalizade's result by…

In this paper, we build some ergodic theorems involving function $\Omega$, where $\Omega(n)$ denotes the number of prime factors of a natural number $n$ counted with multiplicities. As a combinatorial application, it is shown that for any…

We prove that the maximum size of a family of $k$-element subsets of the set $[n] = \{1, 2, \ldots, n\}$ which contains no singleton intersection is $\binom{n-2}{k-2}$ when $3k-3 \le n \le k^2-k+1$. This improves upon a recent result of…

More than 50 years ago, Erd\H os asked the following question: what is the maximum size of a family $\mathcal F$ of $k$-element subsets of an $n$-element set if it has no $s+1$ pairwise disjoint sets? This question attracted a lot of…

A family $\mathcal{F}$ on ground set $\{1,2,\ldots, n\}$ is maximal $k$-wise intersecting if every collection of $k$ sets in $\mathcal{F}$ has non-empty intersection, and no other set can be added to $\mathcal{F}$ while maintaining this…

Let $\omega^*(n)$ be the number of primes $p$ such that $p-1$ divides $n$. Assuming the Elliott--Halberstam Conjecture, we prove a conjecture posted by M. R. Murty and V. K. Murty in 2021 which states that $$\sum_{n\leqslant…

Within the scope of elementary number theory, we prove that, as the main result, if $1 \leq x < y < z$ are integers such that at least one of $y, z, x+y$ is prime then $x^{n}+y^{n} \neq z^{n}$ for every odd integer $n \geq 3$. This result…