English

A group-theoretical approach to Lehmer's totient problem

Number Theory 2021-06-23 v1 Group Theory

Abstract

Lehmer's totient problem asks whether there exists any composite number nn such that φ(n)(n1)\varphi(n) \, \mid \, (n-1), where φ\varphi is Euler totient function. It is known that if any such nn exists, it must be Carmichael and n>1030n > 10^{30}. In this paper, we develop a new approach to the problem via some recent results in group theory related to a function ψ\psi (the sum of order of elements of a group) and show that if kφ(n)=n1k \varphi(n) = n-1 for some integer kk, then kk must be 3\geq 3, and actually, if 5,7,11,13∤n5, 7, 11, 13 \not | n, k4k \geq 4. This implies that any counterexample must be such that n>108171n > 10^{8171} and ω(n)1991\omega(n) \geq 1991.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2106.11781,
  title  = {A group-theoretical approach to Lehmer's totient problem},
  author = {Manuel Norman},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2106.11781},
  year   = {2021}
}

Comments

13 pages

R2 v1 2026-06-24T03:28:09.491Z