arXiv subjects
Publications and source records attributed to Florian Luca.
Let $τ(n)$ be the number of divisors of $n$. We give an elementary proof of the fact that $$ \sum_{n\le x} τ(n)^r =xC_{r} (\log x)^{2^r-1}+O(x(\log x)^{2^r-2}), $$ for any integer $r\ge 2$. Here, $$ C_{r}=\frac{1}{(2^r-1)!} \prod_{p\ge 2}\left( \left(1-\frac{1}{p}\right)^{2^r} \left(\sum_{α\ge 0} \frac{(α+1)^r}{p^α}\right)\right). $$
We study the equation $F_n + F_m = y^p$, where $F_n$ and $F_m$ are respectively the $n$-th and $m$-th Fibonacci numbers and $p \ge 2$. We find all solutions under the assumption $n \equiv m \pmod{2}$.
For a positive integer $n$ let $\mathfrak{P}_n=\prod_{s_p(n)\ge p} p,$ where $p$ runs over all primes and $s_p(n)$ is the sum of the base $p$ digits of $n$. For all $n$ we prove that $\mathfrak{P}_n$ is divisible by all "small" primes with at most one exception. We also show that $\mathfrak{P}_n$ is large, has many prime factors exceeding $\sqrt{n}$, with the largest one exceeding $n^{20/37}$. We establish Kellner's conjecture, which says that the number of prime factors exceeding $\sqrt{n}$ grows asymptotically as $κ\sqrt{n}/\log n$ for some constant $κ$ with $κ=2$. Further, we compare the sizes of $\mathfrak{P}_n$ and $\mathfrak{P}_{n+1}$, leading to the somewhat surprising conclusion that although $\mathfrak{P}_n$ tends to infinity with $n$, the inequality $\mathfrak{P}_n>\mathfrak{P}_{n+1}$ is more frequent than its reverse.
For integer $g\ge 5$, we prove that any positive integer can be written as a sum of three palindromes in base $g$.
We improve the error terms of some estimates related to counting lattices from recent work of L. Fukshansky, P. Guerzhoy and F. Luca (2017). This improvement is based on some analytic techniques, in particular on bounds of exponential sums coupled with the use of Vaaler polynomials.
We investigate two arithmetic functions naturally occurring in the study of the Euler and Carmichael quotients. The functions are related to the frequency of vanishing of the Euler and Carmichael quotients. We obtain several results concerning the relations between these functions as well as their typical and extreme values.
For an integer $d\geq 2$ which is not a square, 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 Tribonacci number, with a few exceptions that we completely characterize.
André's celebrated Theorem of 1998 implies that each complex straight line (apart from obvious exceptions) contains at most finitely many points whose both coordinates are j-invariants of elliptic curves with complex multiplication. We show that there are only a finite number of such lines which contain more than two such points. As there is a line through any two complex points, this is best possible.
Let $E$ be an elliptic curve defined over the rationals and in minimal Weierstrass form, and let $P=(x_1/z_1^2,y_1/z_1^3)$ be a rational point of infinite order on $E$, where $x_1,y_1,z_1$ are coprime integers. We show that the integer sequence $(z_n)$ defined by $nP=(x_n/z_n^2,y_n/z_n^3)$ for all $n\ge 1$ does not eventually coincide with $(u_{n^2})$ for any choice of linear recurrence sequence $(u_n)$ with integer values.
Let X be an algebraic curve over Q and t a non-constant Q-rational function on X such that Q(t) is a proper subfield of Q(X). For every integer n pick a point P_n on X such that t(P_n)=n. We conjecture that, for large N, among the number fields Q(P_1), ..., Q(P_N) there are at least cN distinct. We prove this conjecture in the special case when t defines a geometrically abelian covering of the projective line, and the critical values of t are all rational. This implies, in particular, that our conjecture follows from a famous conjecture of Schinzel.
Let X be a projective curve defined over Q and t a non-constant Q-rational function on X of degree at least 2. For every integer n pick a point P_n on X such that t(P_n)=n. A result of Dvornicich and Zannier implies that, for large N, among the number fields Q(P_1),...,Q(P_N) there are at least cN/\log N distinct, where c>0. We prove that there are at least N/(\log N)^{1-c} distinct fields, where c>0.
In this note, we show that if $N$ is an odd perfect number and $q^α$ is some prime power exactly dividing it, then $σ(N/q^α)/q^α>5$. In general, we also show that if $σ(N/q^α)/q^α<K$, where $K$ is any constant, then $N$ is bounded by some function depending on $K$.
In this paper, we find all the solutions of the Diophantine equation $P_\ell + P_m +P_n=2^a$, in nonnegative integer variables $(n,m,\ell, a)$ where $P_k$ is the $k$-th term of the Pell sequence $\{P_n\}_{n\ge 0}$ given by $P_0=0$, $P_1=1$ and $P_{n+1}=2P_{n}+ P_{n-1}$ for all $n\geq 1$.
We investigate similarity classes of arithmetic lattices in the plane. We introduce a natural height function on the set of such similarity classes, and give asymptotic estimates on the number of all arithmetic similarity classes, semi-stable arithmetic similarity classes, and well-rounded arithmetic similarity classes of bounded height as the bound tends to infinity. We also briefly discuss some properties of the $j$-invariant corresponding to similarity classes of planar lattices.
We show that if $k\ge 2$ is an integer and $(F_n^{(k)})_{n\ge 0}$ is the sequence of $k$-generalized Fibonacci numbers, then there are only finitely many triples of positive integers $1<a<b<c$ such that $ab+1,~ac+1,~bc+1$ are all members of $\{F_n^{(k)}: n\ge 1\}$. This generalizes a previous result (cf. arXiv:1508.07760) where the statement for $k=3$ was proved. The result is ineffective since it is based on Schmidt's subspace theorem.
Diophantine triples taking values in recurrence sequences have recently been studied quite a lot. In particular the question was raised whether or not there are finitely many Diophantine triples in the Tribonacci sequence. We answer this question here in the affirmative. We prove that there are only finitely many triples of integers $1\le u<v<w$ such that $uv+1,uw+1,vw+1$ are Tribonacci numbers. The proof depends on the Subspace theorem.
In this note, we study the divisibility relation $U_m\mid U_{n+k}^s-U_n^s$, where ${\bf U}:=\{U_n\}_{n\ge 0}$ is the Lucas sequence of characteristic polynomial $x^2-ax\pm 1$ and $k,m,n,s$ are positive integers.
In this paper, we prove that there is no number with the Lehmer property in the sequence of Pell numbers.