English

The variance of the Euler totient function

Number Theory 2017-06-14 v1

Abstract

In this paper we study the variance of the Euler totient function (normalized to φ(n)/n\varphi(n)/n) in the integers Z\mathbb{Z} and in the polynomial ring Fq[T]\mathbb{F}_q[T] over a finite field Fq\mathbb{F}_q. It turns out that in Z\mathbb{Z}, under some assumptions, the variance of the normalized Euler function becomes constant. This is supported by several numerical simulations. Surprisingly, in Fq[T]\mathbb{F}_q[T], qq\rightarrow \infty, the analogue does not hold: due to a high amount of cancellation, the variance becomes inversely proportional to the size of the interval.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1706.04028,
  title  = {The variance of the Euler totient function},
  author = {Tom van Overbeeke},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1706.04028},
  year   = {2017}
}

Comments

15 pages, 3 figures

R2 v1 2026-06-22T20:17:25.774Z