Related papers: Eleven, twelve, and thirteen lonely runners

For a non-square positive integer x, let k_x denote the distance between x^3 and the perfect square closest to x^3. A conjecture of Marshall Hall states that the ratios r_x = (x^(1/2))/k_x, are bounded above. (Elkies has shown that any such…

We consider a random walk X_n in Z_+, starting at X_0=x>= 0, with transition probabilities P(X_{n+1}=X_n+1|X_n=y>=1)=1/2-\delta/(4y+2\delta) P(X_{n+1}=X_n+1|X_n=y>=1)=1/2+\delta/(4y+2\delta) and X_{n+1}=1 whenever X_n=0. We prove that the…

Let $P(x)$ be a polynomial of degree $m$, with nonnegative and non-decreasing coefficients. We settle the conjecture that for any positive real number $d$, the coefficients of $P(x+d)$ form a unimodal sequence, of which the special case $d$…

The number of 123-avoiding permutation on $\{1,2,\ldots,n\}$ with a fixed leading terms is counted by the ballot numbers. The same holds for $132$-avoiding permutations. These results were proved by Miner and Pak using the…

In a pursuit evasion game on a finite, simple, undirected, and connected graph $G$, a first player visits vertices $m_1,m_2,\ldots$ of $G$, where $m_{i+1}$ is in the closed neighborhood of $m_i$ for every $i$, and a second player probes…

We introduce a class of nearest-neighbor integer random walks in random and non-random media, which includes excited random walks considered in the literature. At each site the random walker has a drift to the right, the strength of which…

For an integer $t \geq 3$, let $\mathcal{L}(t)$ denote the linear equation $x_1 + x_2 + \cdots + x_{t-1} = x_t,$ where all variables are positive integers. For integers $k \geq 1$ and $t_0,t_1,\dots,t_{k-1} \geq 3$, the generalized Schur…

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.…

In this paper we investigate a problem about certain walks in the ring of Gaussian integers. Let $n,d$ be two natural numbers. Does there exist a sequence of Gaussian integers $z_j$ such that $|z_{j+1}-z_j|=1$ and a pair of indices $r$ and…

We study nearest neighbor random walks on fixed environments of $\mathbb{Z}$ composed of two point types : $(1/2,1/2)$ and $(p,1-p)$ for $p>1/2$. We show that for every environment with density of $p$ drifts bounded by $\lambda$ we have…

The $abc$ conjecture states that there are only finitely many triples of coprime positive integers $(a,b,c)$ such that $a+b=c$ and $\operatorname{rad}(abc) < c^{1-\epsilon}$ for any $\epsilon > 0$. Using the optimized methods in a recent…

Given a sequence of $n$ real numbers $\{S_i\}_{i\leq n}$, we consider the longest weakly increasing subsequence, namely $i_1<i_2<\dots <i_L$ with $S_{i_k} \leq S_{i_{k+1}}$ and $L$ maximal. When the elements $S_i$ are i.i.d. uniform random…

Let $\{a_i\}_{i=1}^\ell$ be a strongly unimodal positive integer sequence with peak position $k$. The rank of such sequence is defined to be $\ell-2k+1$. Let $u(m,n)$ denote the number of sequences $\{a_i\}_{i=1}^\ell$ with rank $m$ and…

In this paper, we study some supercongruences involving the sequence $$ t_n(x)=\sum_{k=0}^n\binom{n}{k}\binom{x}{k}\binom{x+k}{k}2^k $$ and solve some open problems. For any odd prime $p$ and $p$-adic integer $x$, we determine…

In 1992, Bollob\'as and Meir showed that for every $k \geq 1$ there exists a constant $c_k$ such that, for any $n$ points in the $k$-dimensional unit cube $[0, 1]^k$, one can find a tour $x_1, \dots, x_n$ through these $n$ points with…

We study the probability that a random polynomial with integer coefficients is reducible when factored over the rational numbers. Using computer-generated data, we investigate a number of different models, including both monic and non-monic…

The gap between what we can explicitly prove regarding the distribution of primes and what we suspect regarding the distribution of primes is enormous. It is (reasonably) well-known that the Riemann hypothesis is not sufficient to prove…

The Descartes-Frenicle-Sorli conjecture predicts that $k=1$ if $q^k n^2$ is an odd perfect number with Euler prime $q$. In this note, we present some conditions equivalent to this conjecture.

Let $S=(a_1)\cdots(a_k)$ be a minimal zero-sum sequence over a finite cyclic group $G$. The index conjecture states that if $k=4$ and $\gcd(|G|,6)=1$, then $S$ has index $1$. In this paper we prove that if $S$ is singular then the index of…

Consider $n$ runners running on a circular track of unit length with constant speeds such that $k$ of the speeds are distinct. We show that, at some time, there will exist a sector $S$ which contains at least $|S|n+ \Omega(\sqrt{k})$…