arXiv subjects
Publications and source records attributed to Anton Rechenauer.
This article discusses numerical semigroups having a generator which is as large as possible. This turns out to be $2g+1$, where $g$ is the genus of the semigroup. We will show that these semigroups are closely related to symmetric semigroups and have interesting symmetry properties themselves. Furthermore we will show that Wilf's question has a positive answer for these semigroups and some semigroups derived thereof.
Let $p$ be a prime number, and let $S$ be the numerical semigroup generated by the prime numbers not less than $p$. We compare the orders of magnitude of some invariants of $S$ with each other, e. g., the biggest atom $u$ of $S$ with $p$ itself: By Harald Helfgott (arXiv:1312.7748 [math.NT]), every odd integer $N$ greater than five can be written as the sum of three prime numbers. There is numerical evidence suggesting that the summands of $N$ always can be chosen between $\frac N6$ and $\frac N2$. This would imply that $u$ is less than $6p$.
Let $S\neq\mathbb N$ be a numerical semigroup with Frobenius number $f$, genus $g$ and embedding dimension $e$. In 1978 Wilf asked the question, whether $\frac{f+1-g}{f+1}\geq\frac1e$. As is well known, this holds in the cases $e=2$ and $e=3$. From Zhai's results in [5] we derive \[\frac{f+1-g}{f+1}\geq\frac2{e^2-e+2}\text{ for }e\geq4\,.\]
Let $S$ be a numerical semigroup with Frobenius number $f$, genus $g$ and embedding dimension $e$. % In 1978 Wilf asked the question, whether $\frac{f+1-g}{f+1}\geq\frac1e$. As is well known, this holds in the cases $e=2$ and $e=3$. For $e\geq4$, we derive from results of Zhai [5] the following (substantially weaker) lower bound \[\frac{f+1-g}{f+1}>\left(\frac{2N+1}{(2N+2)(e-2)}\right)^e\text{ with }\lfloor N\rfloor=104978\,.\] To the best of our knowledge this is the first explicit lower bound for $\frac{f+1-g}{f+1}$ in terms of the embedding dimension.
Let $0<\lambda\leq1$, $\lambda\notin\left\{\frac24, \frac27, \frac2{10}, \frac2{13}, \ldots\right\}$, be a real and $p$ a prime number, with $[p,p+\lambda p]$ containing at least two primes. Denote by $f_\lambda(p)$ the largest integer which cannot be written as a sum of primes from $[p,p+\lambda p]$. Then \[f_\lambda(p)\sim\left\lfloor2+\frac2\lambda\right\rfloor\cdot p\text{, as }p\text{ goes to infinity.}\] Further a question of Wilf about the 'Money-Changing Problem' has a positive answer for all semigroups of multiplicity $p$ containing the primes from $[p,2p]$. In particular, this holds for the semigroup generated by all primes not less than $p$. The latter special case was already shown in a previous paper.
Let $p_1=2, p_2=3, p_3=5, \ldots$ be the consecutive prime numbers, $S_n$ the numerical semigroup generated by the primes not less than $p_n$ and $u_n$ the largest irredundant generator of $S_n$. We will show, that $\bullet$ $u_n\sim3p_n$. Similarly, for the largest integer $f_n$ not contained in $S_n$, by computational evidence we suspect that $\bullet$ $f_n$ is an odd number for $n\geq5$ and $\bullet$ $f_n\sim3p_n$; further $\bullet$ $4p_n>f_{n+1}$ for $n\geq1$. If $f_n$ is odd for large $n$, then $f_n\sim3p_n$. In case $f_n\sim3p_n$ every large even integer $x$ is the sum of two primes. If $4p_n>f_{n+1}$ for $n\geq1$, then the Goldbach conjecture holds true. Further, Wilf's question in [12] has a positive answer for the semigroups $S_n$.
Let $S\neq\mathbb N$ be a numerical semigroup generated by $e$ elements. In his paper (A Circle-Of-Lights Algorithm for the "Money-Changing Problem", Amer. Math. Monthly 85 (1978), 562--565), H.~S.~Wilf raised the following question: Let $Ω$ be the number of positive integers not contained in $S$ and $c-1$ the largest such element. Is it true that the fraction $\fracΩc$ of omitted numbers is at most $1-\frac1e$? Let $B\subseteq\mathbb N^{e-1}$ be the complement of an artinian $\mathbb N^{e-1}$-ideal. Following a concept of A.~Zhai (An asymptotic result concerning a question of Wilf, arXiv:1111.2779v1 [math.CO]) we relate Wilf's problem to a more general question about the weight distribution on $B$ with respect to a positive weight vector. An affirmative answer is given in special cases, similar to those considered by R.~Fröberg, C.~Gottlieb, R.~Häggkvist (On numerical semigroups, Semigroup Forum, Vol.~35, Issue 1, 1986/1987, 63--83) for Wilf's question.