Related papers: Refinements of Erd\H{o}s's irrationality criterion…

For positive integers $k$ and $n$ let $\sigma_k(n)$ denote the sum of the $k$th powers of the divisors of $n$. Erd\H{o}s and Kac asked whether, for every $k$, the number $\alpha_k = \sum_{n\geq 1} \frac{\sigma_k(n)}{n!}$ is irrational. It…

Using an application of Schmidt's Subspace Theorem, this paper gives new transcendence criteria for rapidly converging infinite products of algebraic numbers. The paper also improves existing criteria for irrationality of products and…

Let $\omega(n)$ denote the number of distinct prime factors of $n$. Assuming a suitably uniform version of the prime $k$-tuples conjecture, we show that the number \begin{align*} \sum_{n=1}^\infty \frac{\omega(n)}{2^n} \end{align*} is…

Answering a question of Erd\H{o}s and Graham, we show that the double exponential growth condition $\limsup_{n\to\infty}a_n^{1/\phi^n}=\infty$ for a strictly increasing sequence of positive integers $\{a_n\}_{n=1}^\infty$ is sufficient for…

Using basic tools of mathematical analysis and elementary probability theory we address several problems on the irrationality of series of distinct unit fractions, $\sum_k 1/a_k$. In particular, we study subseries of the Lambert series…

We give a negative answer to a question by Paul Erd\H{o}s and Ronald Graham on whether the series \[ \sum_{n=1}^{\infty} \frac{1}{(n+1)(n+2)\cdots(n+f(n))} \] has an irrational sum whenever $(f(n))_{n=1}^{\infty}$ is a sequence of positive…

Denote by $\sigma_k(n)$ the sum of the $k$-th powers of the divisors of $n$, and let $S_k=\sum_{n\geq 1}\frac{\sigma_k(n)}{n!}$. We prove that Schinzel's conjecture H implies that $S_k$ is irrational, and give an unconditional proof for the…

We introduce a one-parameter family of series associated to the Riemann $\zeta$-function and prove that the values of the elements of this family at integers are linearly independent over the rationals for almost all values of the…

Euler gave recipes for converting alternating series of two types, I and II, into equivalent continued fractions, i.e., ones whose convergents equal the partial sums. A condition we prove for irrationality of a continued fraction then…

Following earlier results of Sondow, we propose another criterion of irrationality for Euler's constant $\gamma$. It involves similar linear combinations of logarithm numbers $L\_{n,m}$. To prove that $\gamma$ is irrational, it suffices to…

Let $\phi(n)$ be the Euler totient function and $\sigma(n)$ denote the sum of divisors of $n$. In this note, we obtain explicit upper bounds on the number of positive integers $n\leq x$ such that $\phi(\sigma(n)) > cn$ for any $c>0$. This…

By exploring the theory of Guillera-Rogers, we evaluate some infinite series whose summands are quadratic irrationals, in terms of $\pi$ and special values of Dirichlet $L$-functions $ L_d(2)\equiv L(2,(\frac…

We show that the sequence of ratios $d(n+1) / d(n)$ of consecutive values of the divisor function attains every positive rational infinitely many times. This confirms a prediction of Erd\H{o}s.

The Erd\H{o}s discrepancy problem, now a theorem by T. Tao, asks whether every sequence with values plus or minus one has unbounded discrepancy along all homogeneous arithmetic progressions. We establish weighted variants of this problem,…

Borwein, Bailey, and Girgensohn (2004) asked whether the following infinite series converges: the sum of $(\frac{2}{3} + \frac{1}{3} \sin n)^n / n$ over all positive integers $n$. We prove that their series converges. The proof uses the…

We show that for some $k\le 3570$ and all $k$ with $442720643463713815200|k$, the equation $\phi(n)=\phi(n+k)$ has infinitely many solutions $n$, where $\phi$ is Euler's totient function. We also show that for a positive proportion of all…

We provide a general theorem for evaluating trigonometric Dirichlet series of the form $\sum_{n \geq 1} \frac{f (\pi n \tau)}{n^s}$, where $f$ is an arbitrary product of the elementary trigonometric functions, $\tau$ a real quadratic…

Erd\H{o}s first conjectured that infinitely often we have $\varphi(n) = \sigma(m)$, where $\varphi$ is the Euler totient function and $\sigma$ is the sum of divisor function. This was proven true by Ford, Luca and Pomerance in 2010. We ask…

An Engel series is a sum of reciprocals of a non-decreasing sequence $(x_n)$ of positive integers, which is such that each term is divisible by the previous one, and a Pierce series is an alternating sum of the reciprocals of a sequence…

We show that if $F(s)$ is a nondegenerate ordinary Dirichlet series with nonnegative coefficients and $F(k)$ is a rational number for all large enough positive integers $k$, then the denominators of those rational numbers are unbounded. In…