English

The relation between a generalized Fibonacci sequence and the length of Cunningham chains

Number Theory 2022-05-25 v4

Abstract

Let pp be a prime number. A chain {p,2p+1,4p+3,,(p+1)2l(p)11}\{p,2p+1,4p+3,\cdots,(p+1)2^{l(p)-1}-1\} is called the Cunningham chain generated by pp if all elements are prime number and (p+1)2l(p)1(p+1)2^{l(p)}-1 is composite. Then l(p)l(p) is called the length of the Cunningham chain. It is conjectured by Bateman and Horn in 1962 that the number of prime pNp\leq N such that l(p)kl(p)\geq k is asymptotically equal to BkN/(logN)kB_k N/(\log N)^k with a real Bk>0B_k>0 for all natural number kk. This suggests that l(p)=Ω(logp/loglogp)l(p)=\Omega(\log p/\log\log p). However, so far no good estimation is known. It has not even been proven whether lim suppl(p)\limsup_{p\to\infty} l(p) is infinite or not. All we know is that l(p)=5l(p)=5 if p=2p=2 and l(p)<pl(p)<p for odd pp by Fermat's little theorem. Let α3\alpha\geq3 be an integer. In this article, a generalized Fibonacci sequence Fα={Fn}n=0\mathcal{F}_\alpha=\{F_n\}_{n=0}^\infty is defined as F0=0,F1=1,Fn+2=αFn+1+Fn(n0)F_0=0,F_1=1, F_{n+2}=\alpha F_{n+1}+F_n (n\geq0), and Fασ(n)=dn,0<dFαd{}_{\mathcal{F}_\alpha}\sigma(n)=\sum_{d\mid n, 0<d\in\mathcal{F}_\alpha}d is called a divisor function on Fα\mathcal{F}_\alpha. Then we obtain an interesting relation between the iteration of Fασ{}_{\mathcal{F}_\alpha}\sigma and the length of Cunningham chains. For two primes pp and qq, the fact p=2q+1p=2q+1 or 2q12q-1 is equivalent to Fασ(Fασ(Fp))=Fασ(Fq){}_{\mathcal{F}_\alpha}\sigma({}_{\mathcal{F}_\alpha}\sigma(F_p))={}_{\mathcal{F}_\alpha}\sigma(F_q) for some α\alpha. By this relation, we get l(p)logpl(p)\ll\log p under a certain condition. It seems that this sufficient condition is plausible by numerical test. Furthermore, the condition, written in terms of prime numbers, can be replaced by the condition written in terms of natural numbers. This implies that the problem of upper estimation of l(p)l(p) is reduced to that on natural numbers.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2205.07650,
  title  = {The relation between a generalized Fibonacci sequence and the length of Cunningham chains},
  author = {Yuya Kanado},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2205.07650},
  year   = {2022}
}

Comments

18 pages, 2 figures

R2 v1 2026-06-24T11:18:29.873Z