Related papers: On covering numbers

In 2007, Zhi-Wei Sun defined a \emph{covering number} to be a positive integer $L$ such that there exists a covering system of the integers where the moduli are distinct divisors of $L$ greater than 1. A covering number $L$ is called…

A subset of $\{1,2,\ldots,2n\}$ is said to be primitive if it does not contain any pair of elements $(u,v)$ such that $u$ is a divisor of $v$. Let $D(n)$ denote the number of primitive subsets of $\{1,2,\ldots,2n\}$ with $n$ elements.…

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…

A set of natural numbers $A$ is called primitive if no element of $A$ divides any other. Let $\Omega(n)$ be the number of prime divisors of $n$ counted with multiplicity. Let $f_z(A) = \sum_{a \in A}\frac{z^{\Omega(a)}}{a (\log a)^z}$,…

The covering number of a group $G$, denoted by $\sigma(G)$, is the size of a minimal collection of proper subgroups of $G$ whose union is $G$. We investigate which integers are covering numbers of groups. We determine which integers $129$…

We say a natural number~$n$ is abundant if $\sigma(n)>2n$, where $\sigma(n)$ denotes the sum of the divisors of~$n$. The aliquot parts of~$n$ are those divisors less than~$n$, and we say that an abundant number~$n$ is pseudoperfect if there…

A set of positive integers is primitive (or 1-primitive) if no member divides another. Erd\H{o}s proved in 1935 that the weighted sum $\sum1/(n \log n)$ for $n$ ranging over a primitive set $A$ is universally bounded over all choices for…

A covering system of the integers is a finite collection of modular residue classes $\{a_m \bmod{m}\}_{m \in S}$ whose union is all integers. Given a finite set $S$ of moduli, it is often difficult to tell whether there is a choice of…

We investigate the densities of the sets of abundant numbers and of covering numbers, integers $n$ for which there exists a distinct covering system where every modulus divides $n$. We establish that the set $\mathcal{C}$ of covering…

A set of positive integers is said to be primitive if no element of the set is a multiple of another. If $S$ is a primitive set and $S(x)$ is the number of elements of $S$ not exceeding $x$, then a result of Erd\H os implies that…

We consider primitive divisors of terms of integer sequences defined by quadratic polynomials. Apart from some small counterexamples, when a term has a primitive divisor, that primitive divisor is unique. It seems likely that the number of…

Let $n$ be a primitive non-deficient number where $n=p_1^{a_1}p_2^{a_2} \cdots p_k^{a_k}$ where $p_1, p_2 \cdots p_k$ are distinct primes. We prove that there exists an $i$ such that $$p_i^{a_i+1} < 2k(p_1p_2p_3\cdots p_k).$$ We conjecture…

A set of natural numbers is primitive if no element of the set divides another. Erd\H{o}s conjectured that if S is any primitive set, then \sum_{n\in S} 1/(n log n) \le \sum_{n\in \P} 1/(p log p), where \P denotes the set of primes. In this…

An old question of Erdos asks if there exists, for each number N, a finite set S of integers greater than N and residue classes r(n) mod n for n in S whose union is all the integers. We prove that if $\sum_{n\in S} 1/n$ is bounded for such…

A famous unsolved conjecture of P. Erdos and J. L. Selfridge states that there does not exist a covering system {a_s(mod n_s)}_{s=1}^k with the moduli n_1,...,n_k odd, distinct and greater than one. In this paper we show that if such a…

Let $(b_n) = (b_1, b_2, ...)$ be a sequence of integers. A primitive prime divisor of a term $b_k$ is a prime which divides $b_k$ but does not divide any of the previous terms of the sequence. A zero orbit of a polynomial $f(z)$ is a…

For a positive integer $n$, if $\sigma(n)$ denotes the sum of the positive divisors of $n$, then $n$ is called a deficient perfect number if $\sigma(n)=2n-d$ for some positive divisor $d$ of $n$. In this paper, we prove some results about…

If p is a prime, then the numbers 1, 2, ..., p-1 form a group under multiplication modulo p. A number g that generates this group is called a primitive root of p; i.e., g is such that every number between 1 and p-1 can be written as a power…

Let F(z) be a rational function in Q(z) of degree at least 2 with F(0) = 0 and such that F does not vanish to order d at 0. Let b be a rational number having infinite orbit under iteration of F, and write F^n(b) = A_n/B_n as a fraction in…

In this paper we construct a cover {a_s(mod n_s)}_{s=1}^k of Z with odd moduli such that there are distinct primes p_1,...,p_k dividing 2^{n_1}-1,...,2^{n_k}-1 respectively. Using this cover we show that for any positive integer m divisible…