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Greg Martin

Publications and source records attributed to Greg Martin.

At least 55 records · Page 3Linked to original sources
arXiv2014

Polynomials whose reducibility is related to the Goldbach conjecture

We introduce a collection of polynomials $F_N$, associated to each positive integer $N$, whose divisibility properties yield a reformulation of the Goldbach conjecture. While this reformulation certainly does not lead to a resolution of the conjecture, it does suggest two natural generalizations for which we provide some numerical evidence. As these polynomials $F_N$ are independently interesting, we further explore their basic properties, giving, among other things, asymptotic estimates on the growth of their coefficients.

math.NT↗
arXiv2014

Squarefree values of trinomial discriminants

The discriminant of a trinomial of the form $x^n \pm x^m \pm 1$ has the form $\pm n^n \pm (n-m)^{n-m} m^m$ if $n$ and $m$ are relatively prime. We investigate when these discriminants have nontrivial square factors. We explain various unlikely-seeming parametric families of square factors of these discriminant values: for example, when $n$ is congruent to 2 (mod 6) we have that $((n^2-n+1)/3)^2$ always divides $n^n - (n-1)^{n-1}$. In addition, we discover many other square factors of these discriminants that do not fit into these parametric families. The set of primes whose squares can divide these sporadic values as $n$ varies seems to be independent of $m$, and this set can be seen as a generalization of the Wieferich primes, those primes $p$ such that $2^{p-1}$ is congruent to 1 (mod $p^2$). We provide heuristics for the density of squarefree values of these discriminants and the density of these "sporadic" primes.

math.NT↗
arXiv2014

Averages of the number of points on elliptic curves

If $E$ is an elliptic curve defined over $\mathbb Q$ and $p$ is a prime of good reduction for $E$, let $E(\mathbb F_p)$ denote the set of points on the reduced curve modulo $p$. Define an arithmetic function $M_E(N)$ by setting $M_E(N):= \#\{p: \#E(\mathbb F_p)= N\}$. Recently, David and the third author studied the average of $M_E(N)$ over certain "boxes" of elliptic curves $E$. Assuming a plausible conjecture about primes in short intervals, they showed the following: for odd $N$, the average of $M_E(N)$ over a box with sufficiently large sides is $\sim \frac{K^{\ast}(N)}{\log{N}}$ for an explicitly-given function $K^{\ast}(N)$. The function $K^{\ast}(N)$ is somewhat peculiar: defined as a product over the primes dividing $N$, it resembles a multiplicative function at first glance. But further inspection reveals that it is not, and so one cannot directly investigate its properties by the usual tools of multiplicative number theory. In this paper, we overcome these difficulties and prove a number of statistical results about $K^{\ast}(N)$. For example, we determine the mean value of $K^{\ast}(N)$ over all $N$, odd $N$ and prime $N$, and we show that $K^{\ast}(N)$ has a distribution function. We also explain how our results relate to existing theorems and conjectures on the multiplicative properties of $\# E(\mathbb F_p)$, such as Koblitz's conjecture.

math.NT↗
arXiv2013

Optimal primitive sets with restricted primes

A set of natural numbers is primitive if no element of the set divides another. Erdős conjectured that if S is any primitive set, then \sum_{n\in S} 1/(n log n) \le \sum_{n\in ¶} 1/(p log p), where ¶denotes the set of primes. In this paper, we make progress towards this conjecture by restricting the setting to smaller sets of primes. Let P denote any subset of ¶, and let N(P) denote the set of natural numbers all of whose prime factors are in P. We say that P is Erdős-best among primitive subsets of N(P) if the inequality \sum_{n\in S} 1/(n log n) \le \sum_{n\in P} 1/(p log p) holds for every primitive set S contained in N(P). We show that if the sum of the reciprocals of the elements of P is small enough, then P is Erdős-best among primitive subsets of N(P). As an application, we prove that the set of twin primes exceeding 3 is Erdős-best among the corresponding primitive sets. This problem turns out to be related to a similar problem involving multiplicative weights. For any real number t>1, we say that P is t-best among primitive subsets of N(P) if the inequality \sum_{n\in S} n^{-t} \le \sum_{n\in P} p^{-t} holds for every primitive set S contained in N(P). We show that if the sum on the right-hand side of this inequality is small enough, then P is t-best among primitive subsets of N(P).

math.NT↗
arXiv2012

Lower bounds for sumsets of multisets in Z_p^2

The classical Cauchy-Davenport theorem implies the lower bound n+1 for the number of distinct subsums that can be formed from a sequence of n elements of the cyclic group Z_p (when p is prime and n<p). We generalize this theorem to a conjecture for the minimum number of distinct subsums that can be formed from elements of a multiset in (Z_p)^m; the conjecture is expected to be valid for multisets that are not "wasteful" by having too many elements in nontrivial subgroups. We prove this conjecture in (Z_p)^2 for multisets of size p+k, when k is not too large in terms of p.

math.NT↗
arXiv2012

Nonzero values of Dirichlet $L$-functions in vertical arithmetic progressions

Let $L(s,χ)$ be a fixed Dirichlet $L$-function. Given a vertical arithmetic progression of $T$ points on the line $\Re(s)=1/2$, we show that $\gg T \log T$ of them are not zeros of $L(s,χ)$. This result provides some theoretical evidence towards the conjecture that all ordinates of zeros of Dirichlet $L$-functions are linearly independent over the rationals. We also establish an upper bound (depending upon the progression) for the first member of the arithmetic progression that is not a zero of $L(s,χ)$.

math.NT↗
arXiv2012

Comparative prime number theory: A survey

Comparative prime number theory is the study of the {\em{discrepancies}} of distributions when we compare the number of primes in different residue classes. This work presents a list of the problems being investigated in comparative prime number theory, their generalizations, and an extensive list of references on both historical and current progresses.

math.NT↗
arXiv2011

The average least character nonresidue and further variations on a theme of Erdos

For each nonprincipal Dirichlet character $χ$, let $n_χ$ be the least $n$ with $χ(n) \notin \{0,1\}$. We show that as the average of $n_χ$ over all nonprincipal characters $χ$ modulo $q$ is $\ell(q) + o(1)$, where $\ell(q)$ denotes the least prime not dividing $q$. Moreover, if one averages over all nonprincipal characters of modulus at most $x$, the average approaches a particular limiting value 2.5350541804. We also prove a result of this type for cubic number fields: If one averages over all cubic fields $K$, ordered by the absolute value of their discriminant, then the mean value of the least rational prime that does not split completely in $K$ is another particular constant 2.1211027269.

math.NT↗
arXiv2011

Inequities in the Shanks-Renyi Prime Number Race: An asymptotic formula for the densities

Chebyshev was the first to observe a bias in the distribution of primes in residue classes. The general phenomenon is that if $a$ is a nonsquare\mod q and $b$ is a square\mod q, then there tend to be more primes congruent to $a\mod q$ than $b\mod q$ in initial intervals of the positive integers; more succinctly, there is a tendency for $π(x;q,a)$ to exceed $π(x;q,b)$. Rubinstein and Sarnak defined $δ(q;a,b)$ to be the logarithmic density of the set of positive real numbers $x$ for which this inequality holds; intuitively, $δ(q;a,b)$ is the "probability" that $π(x;q,a) > π(x;q,b)$ when $x$ is "chosen randomly". In this paper, we establish an asymptotic series for $δ(q;a,b)$ that can be instantiated with an error term smaller than any negative power of $q$. This asymptotic formula is written in terms of a variance $V(q;a,b)$ that is originally defined as an infinite sum over all nontrivial zeros of Dirichlet $L$-functions corresponding to characters\mod q; we show how $V(q;a,b)$ can be evaluated exactly as a finite expression. In addition to providing the exact rate at which $δ(q;a,b)$ converges to $\frac12$ as $q$ grows, these evaluations allow us to compare the various density values $δ(q;a,b)$ as $a$ and $b$ vary modulo $q$; by analyzing the resulting formulas, we can explain and predict which of these densities will be larger or smaller, based on arithmetic properties of the residue classes $a$ and $b\mod q$. For example, we show that if $a$ is a prime power and $a'$ is not, then $δ(q;a,1) < δ(q;a',1)$ for all but finitely many moduli $q$ for which both $a$ and $a'$ are nonsquares. Finally, we establish rigorous numerical bounds for these densities $δ(q;a,b)$ and report on extensive calculations of them.

math.NT↗
arXiv2010

Primitive sets with large counting functions

A set of positive integers is said to be primitive if no element of the set is a multiple of another. If $S$ is a primitive set and $S(x)$ is the number of elements of $S$ not exceeding $x$, then a result of Erd\H os implies that $\int_2^\infty (S(t)/t^2\log t) dt$ converges. We establish an approximate converse to this theorem, showing that if $F$ satisfies some mild conditions and $\int_2^\infty (F(t)/t^2\log t) dt$ converges, then there exists a primitive set $S$ with $S(x) \gg F(x)$.

math.NT↗
arXiv2010

The size of coefficients of certain polynomials related to the Goldbach conjecture

Recent work of Borwein, Choi, and the second author examined a collection of polynomials closely related to the Goldbach conjecture: the polynomial $F_N$ is divisible by the $N$th cyclotomic polynomial if and only if there is no representation of $N$ as the sum of two odd primes. The coefficients of these polynomials stabilize, as $N$ grows, to a fixed sequence $a(m)$; they derived upper and lower bounds for $a(m)$, and an asymptotic formula for the summatory function $A(M)$ of the sequence, both under the assumption of a famous conjecture of Hardy and Littlewood. In this article we improve these results: we obtain an asymptotic formula for $a(m)$ under the same assumption, and we establish the asymptotic formula for $A(M)$ unconditionally.

math.NT↗
arXiv2009

The supremum of autoconvolutions, with applications to additive number theory

We adapt a number-theoretic technique of Yu to prove a purely analytic theorem: if f(x) is in L^1 and L^2, is nonnegative, and is supported on an interval of length I, then the supremum of the convolution f*f is at least 0.631 \| f \|_1^2 / I. This improves the previous bound of 0.591389 \| f \|_1^2 / I. Consequently, we improve the known bounds on several related number-theoretic problems. For a subset A of {1,2, ..., n}, let g be the maximum multiplicity of any element of the multiset {a+b: a,b in A}. Our main corollary is the inequality gn>0.631|A|^2, which holds uniformly for all g, n, and A.

math.CA↗
arXiv2009

Erdos-Turan with a moving target, equidistribution of roots of reducible quadratics, and Diophantine quadruples

A Diophantine $m$-tuple is a set $A$ of $m$ positive integers such that $ab+1$ is a perfect square for every pair $a,b$ of distinct elements of $A$. We derive an asymptotic formula for the number of Diophantine quadruples whose elements are bounded by $x$. In doing so, we extend two existing tools in ways that might be of independent interest. The Erd\H os-Turán inequality bounds the discrepancy between the number of elements of a sequence that lie in a particular interval modulo 1 and the expected number; we establish a version of this inequality where the interval is allowed to vary. We also adapt an argument of Hooley on the equidistribution of solutions of polynomial congruences to handle reducible quadratic polynomials.

math.NT↗
arXiv2008

The number of 2x2 integer matrices having a prescribed integer eigenvalue

Random matrices arise in many mathematical contexts, and it is natural to ask about the properties that such matrices satisfy. If we choose a matrix with integer entries at random, for example, what is the probability that it will have a particular integer as an eigenvalue, or an integer eigenvalue at all? If we choose a matrix with real entries at random, what is the probability that it will have a real eigenvalue in a particular interval? The purpose of this paper is to resolve these questions, once they are made suitably precise, in the setting of 2x2 matrices.

math.PR↗
arXiv2007

Almost all integer matrices have no integer eigenvalues

For a fixed $n\ge2$, consider an $n\times n$ matrix $M$ whose entries are random integers bounded by $k$ in absolute value. In this paper, we examine the probability that $M$ is singular (hence has eigenvalue 0), and the probability that $M$ has at least one rational eigenvalue. We show that both of these probabilities tend to 0 as $k$ increases. More precisely, we establish an upper bound of size $k^{-2+ε}$ for the probability that $M$ is singular, and size $k^{-1+ε}$ for the probability that $M$ has a rational eigenvalue. These results generalize earlier work by Kowalsky for the case $n=2$ and answer a question posed by Hetzel, Liew, and Morrison.

math.NT↗
arXiv2007

Sets that contain their circle centers

Say that a subset S of the plane is a "circle-center set" if S is not a subset of a line, and whenever we choose three noncollinear points from S, the center of the unique circle through those three points is also an element of S. A problem appearing on the Macalester College Problem of the Week website was to prove that a finite set of points in the plane, no three lying on a common line, cannot be a circle-center set. Various solutions to this problem that did not use the full strength of the hypotheses appeared, and the conjecture was subsequently made that every circle-center set is unbounded. In this article, we prove a stronger assertion, namely that every circle-center set is dense in the plane, or equivalently that the only closed circle-center set is the entire plane. Along the way we show connections between our geometrical method of proof and number theory, real analysis, and topology.

math.MG↗
arXiv2006

Many sets have more sums than differences

Since addition is commutative but subtraction is not, the sumset S+S of a finite set S is predisposed to be smaller than the difference set S-S. In this paper, however, we show that each of the three possibilities (|S+S|>|S-S|, |S+S|=|S-S|, |S+S|<|S-S|) occur for a positive proportion of the subsets of {0, 1, ..., n-1}. We also show that the difference |S+S| - |S-S| can take any integer value, and we show that the expected number of omitted differences is asymptotically 6 while the expected number of missing sums is asymptotically 10. Other data and conjectures on the distribution of these quantities are also given.

math.NT↗