arXiv subjects
Publications and source records attributed to Florian Luca.
In this paper, we find all solutions of the exponential Diophantine equation $B_{n+1}^x-B_n^x=B_m$ in positive integer variables $(m, n, x)$, where $B_k$ is the $k$-th term of the Balancing sequence.
An integer $n$ is said to be ternary if it is composed of three distinct odd primes. In this paper, we asymptotically count the number of ternary integers $n \leq x$ with the constituent primes satisfying various constraints. We apply our results to the study of the simplest class of (inverse) cyclotomic polynomials that can have coefficients that are greater than 1 in absolute value, namely to the $n^{th}$ (inverse) cyclotomic polynomials with ternary $n$. We show, for example, that the corrected Sister Beiter conjecture is true for a fraction $\ge 0.925$ of ternary integers.
Let τ(.) be the Ramanujan τ-function, and let k be a positive integer such that τ(n) is not 0 for n=1,...,[k/2]. (This is known to be true for k < 10^{23}, and, conjecturally, for all k.) Further, let s be a permutation of the set {1,...,k}. Then there exist infinitely many positive integers m such that |τ(m+s(1))|<τ(m+s(2))|<...<|τ(m+s(k))|. We also obtain a similar result for Fourier-coefficients of general newforms.
For an integer $k\geq 2$, let $\{F^{(k)}_{n}\}_{n\geqslant 2-k}$ be the $ k$--generalized Fibonacci sequence which starts with $0, \ldots, 0,1$ (a total of $k$ terms) and for which each term afterwards is the sum of the $k$ preceding terms. In this paper, for an integer $d\geq 2$ which is square free, we show that there is at most one value of the positive integer $x$ participating in the Pell equation $x^{2}-dy^{2} =\pm 1$ which is a $k$--generalized Fibonacci number, with a couple of parametric exceptions which we completely characterise. This paper extends previous work from [17] for the case $k=2$ and [16] for the case $k=3$.
In this paper, we find all positive squarefree integers d such that the Pell equation X2-dY2 = +-1 has at least two positive integer solutions (X,Y) and (X',Y') such that both X and X' have Zeckendorf representations with at most two terms. This paper has been accepted for publication in SCIENCE CHINA Mathematics.
For $A \subseteq \mathbb{N}$, the question of when $R(A) = \{a/a' : a, a' \in A\}$ is dense in the positive real numbers $\mathbb{R}_+$ has been examined by many authors over the years. In contrast, the $p$-adic setting is largely unexplored. We investigate conditions under which $R(A)$ is dense in the $p$-adic numbers. Techniques from elementary, algebraic, and analytic number theory are employed in this endeavor. We also pose many open questions that should be of general interest.
We show that two distinct singular moduli $j(τ),j(τ')$, such that for some positive integers $m, n$ the numbers $1,j(τ)^m$ and $j(τ')^n$ are linearly dependent over $\mathbb{Q}$ generate the same number field of degree at most $2$. This completes a result of Riffaut, who proved the above theorem except for two explicit pair of exceptions consisting of numbers of degree $3$. The purpose of this article is to treat these two remaining cases.
By a sphere-packing argument, we show that there are infinitely many pairs of primes that are close to each other for some metrics on the integers. In particular, for any numeration basis $q$, we show that there are infinitely many pairs of primes the base $q$ expansion of which differ in at most two digits. Likewise, for any fixed integer $t,$ there are infinitely many pairs of primes, the first $t$ digits of which are the same. In another direction, we show that, there is a constant $c$ depending on $q$ such that for infinitely many integers $m$ there are at least $c\log \log m$ primes which differ from $m$ by at most one base $q$ digit.
The study of Diophantine triples taking values in linear recurrence sequences is a variant of a problem going back to Diophantus of Alexandria which has been studied quite a lot in the past. The main questions are, as usual, about existence or finiteness of Diophantine triples in such sequences. Whilst the case of binary recurrence sequences is almost completely solved, not much was known about recurrence sequences of larger order, except for very specialized generalizations of the Fibonacci sequence. Now, we will prove that any linear recurrence sequence with the Pisot property contains only finitely many Diophantine triples, whenever the order is large and a few more not very restrictive conditions are met.
For an integer $ k\geq 2 $, let $ \{F^{(k)}_{n} \}_{n\geq 0}$ be the $ k$--generalized Fibonacci sequence which starts with $ 0, \ldots, 0, 1 $ ($ k $ terms) and each term afterwards is the sum of the $ k $ preceding terms. In this paper, we find all integers $c$ having at least two representations as a difference between a $k$--generalized Fibonacci number and a powers of 2 for any fixed $k \geqslant 4$. This paper extends previous work from [9] for the case $k=2$ and [6] for the case $k=3$.
Let $b\ge 2$ be a given integer. In this paper, we show that there only finitely many positive integers $d$ which are not squares, such that the Pell equation $X^2-dY^2=1$ has two positive integer solutions $(X,Y)$ with the property that their $X$-coordinates are base $b$-repdigits. Recall that a base $b$-repdigit is a positive integer all whose digits have the same value when written in base $b$. We also give an upper bound on the largest such $d$ in terms of $b$.
We study the difference between the number of primitive roots modulo $p$ and modulo $p+k$ for prime pairs $p,p+k$. Assuming the Bateman-Horn conjecture, we prove the existence of strong sign biases for such pairs. More importantly, we prove that for a small positive proportion of prime pairs $p,p+k$, the dominant inequality is reversed.
We consider the family of Lucas sequences uniquely determined by $U_{n+2}(k)=(4k+2)U_{n+1}(k) -U_n(k),$ with initial values $U_0(k)=0$ and $U_1(k)=1$ and $k\ge 1$ an arbitrary integer. For any integer $n\ge 1$ the discriminator function $\mathcal{D}_k(n)$ of $U_n(k)$ is defined as the smallest integer $m$ such that $U_0(k),U_1(k),\ldots,U_{n-1}(k)$ are pairwise incongruent modulo $m$. Numerical work of Shallit on $\mathcal{D}_k(n)$ suggests that it has a relatively simple characterization. In this paper we will prove that this is indeed the case by showing that for every $k\ge 1$ there is a constant $n_k$ such that ${\mathcal D}_{k}(n)$ has a simple characterization for every $n\ge n_k$. The case $k=1$ turns out to be fundamentally different from the case $k>1$.
We prove some conjectures of K. Stolarsky concerning the first and third moment of the Beatty sequences with the golden section and its square.
Numerical evidence suggests that for only about $2\%$ of pairs $p,p+2$ of twin primes, $p+2$ has more primitive roots than does $p$. If this occurs, we say that $p$ is exceptional (there are only two exceptional pairs with $5 \leq p \leq 10{,}000$). Assuming the Bateman-Horn conjecture, we prove that at least $0.47\%$ of twin prime pairs are exceptional and at least $65.13\%$ are not exceptional. We also conjecture a precise formula for the proportion of exceptional twin primes.
In this paper, we find all Fibonacci numbers which are products of two Pell numbers and all Pell numbers which are products of two Fibonacci numbers.
In this paper, we find all integers c having at least two representations as a difference between a Fibonacci number and a power of 2.
We prove unconditionally that for each $\ell \geq 1$, the difference $ϕ(p-\ell) - ϕ(p+\ell)$ is positive for $50\%$ of odd primes $p$ and negative for $50\%$.