English

Two Games on Arithmetic Functions: SALIQUANT and NONTOTIENT

Number Theory 2023-09-06 v1 Combinatorics

Abstract

We investigate the Sprague-Grundy sequences for two normal-play impartial games based on arithmetic functions, first described by Iannucci and Larsson in \cite{sum}. In each game, the set of positions is N (natural numbers). In saliquant, the options are to subtract a non-divisor. Here we obtain several nice number theoretic lemmas, a fundamental theorem, and two conjectures about the eventual density of Sprague-Grundy values. In nontotient, the only option is to subtract the number of relatively prime residues. Here are able to calculate certain Sprague-Grundy values, and start to understand an appropriate class function.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2309.01231,
  title  = {Two Games on Arithmetic Functions: SALIQUANT and NONTOTIENT},
  author = {Paul Ellis and Jason Shi and Thotsaporn Aek Thanatipanonda and Andrew Tu},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2309.01231},
  year   = {2023}
}

Comments

8 pages, 1 figure

R2 v1 2026-06-28T12:11:35.931Z