arXiv subjects
Publications and source records attributed to Nathan McNew.
In this paper, we prove that there are infinitely many $n$ for which $rad(φ(n))|n-1$ but $n$ is not a Carmichael number. Additionally, we prove that for any $k\geq 3$, there exist infinitely many $n$ such that $φ(n)|(n-1)^k$ but $φ(n)\nmid (n-1)^{k-1}$. The constructs that we consider here are generalizations of Carmichael and Lehmer numbers, respectively, that were first formulated by Grau and Oller-Marcén.
Two well studied Ramsey-theoretic problems consider subsets of the natural numbers which either contain no three elements in arithmetic progression, or in geometric progression. We study generalizations of this problem, by varying the kinds of progressions to be avoided and the metrics used to evaluate the density of the resulting subsets. One can view a 3-term arithmetic progression as a sequence $x, f_n(x), f_n(f_n(x))$, where $f_n(x) = x + n$, $n$ a nonzero integer. Thus avoiding three-term arithmetic progressions is equivalent to containing no three elements of the form $x, f_n(x), f_n(f_n(x))$ with $f_n \in\mathcal{F}_{\rm t}$, the set of integer translations. One can similarly construct related progressions using different families of functions. We investigate several such families, including geometric progressions ($f_n(x) = nx$ with $n > 1$ a natural number) and exponential progressions ($f_n(x) = x^n$). Progression-free sets are often constructed "greedily," including every number so long as it is not in progression with any of the previous elements. Rankin characterized the greedy geometric-progression-free set in terms of the greedy arithmetic set. We characterize the greedy exponential set and prove that it has asymptotic density 1, and then discuss how the optimality of the greedy set depends on the family of functions used to define progressions. Traditionally, the size of a progression-free set is measured using the (upper) asymptotic density, however we consider several different notions of density, including the uniform and exponential densities.
We consider the distribution of the largest prime divisor of the integers in the interval $[2,x]$, and investigate in particular the mode of this distribution, the prime number(s) which show up most often in this list. In addition to giving an asymptotic formula for this mode as $x$ tends to infinity, we look at the set of those prime numbers which, for some value of $x$, occur most frequently as the largest prime divisor of the integers in the interval $[2,x]$. We find that many prime numbers never have this property. We compare the set of "popular primes," those primes which are at some point the mode, to other interesting subsets of the prime numbers. Finally, we apply the techniques developed to a similar problem which arises in the analysis of factoring algorithms.
The problem of looking for subsets of the natural numbers which contain no 3-term arithmetic progressions has a rich history. Roth's theorem famously shows that any such subset cannot have positive upper density. In contrast, Rankin in 1960 suggested looking at subsets without three-term geometric progressions, and constructed such a subset with density about 0.719. More recently, several authors have found upper bounds for the upper density of such sets. We significantly improve upon these bounds, and demonstrate a method of constructing sets with a greater upper density than Rankin's set. This construction is optimal in the sense that our method gives a way of effectively computing the greatest possible upper density of a geometric-progression-free set. We also show that geometric progressions in Z/nZ behave more like Roth's theorem in that one cannot take any fixed positive proportion of the integers modulo a sufficiently large value of n while avoiding geometric progressions.
Lehmer's totient problem asks if there exist composite integers n satisfying the condition phi(n)|(n-1), (where phi is the Euler-phi function) while Carmichael numbers satisfy the weaker condition lambda(n)|(n-1) (where lambda is the Carmichael universal exponent function). We weaken the condition further, looking at those composite n where each prime divisor of phi(n) also divides n-1. (So rad(phi(n))|(n-1).) While these numbers appear to be far more numerous than the Carmichael numbers, we show that their distribution has the same rough upper bound as that of the Carmichael numbers, a bound which is heuristically tight.