Questions tagged [polymath5]
For questions arising from topics discussed during the Polymath5 project, which tried to solve the Erdős discrepancy problem.
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Homogeneous van der Waerden
The Erdős Discrepancy Problem is whether in any two-coloring of the naturals for any $C$ there is a sequence $d, 2d, \ldots nd$ such that the difference of red and blue numbers in it is more than $C$.
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Difficulty understanding equivalent statement of Erdős Discrepancy Problem
Recently I watched a famous youtube video of talk given by Terry Tao on Erdős Discrepancy Problem https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QauoO0j9Y9Y.
I never heard of this problem before his announcement of ...
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The behavior of a certain greedy algorithm for Erdős Discrepancy Problem
Let $N$ be a positive integer.
We want to find a completely multiplicative functions $f(n)$ with values $\pm 1$ for $n \le N$ such that the discrepancy
$$D=\max_{n \le N} |\{\sum_{i=1}^nf(i)\}|$$
is ...
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A question about Mobius inversion
I don't know how precise I can make this question. I want to know whether there is a theorem that says that a certain phenomenon always happens, but I think the best I can do in order to pin down the ...
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Making a character small at a reciprocal
The following question emerged from thinking about the Erdős discrepancy problem. I don't know whether an answer would be directly helpful, but it might, and in any case I find the question quite ...
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How many surjections are there from a set of size n?
It is well-known that the number of surjections from a set of size n to a set of size m is quite a bit harder to calculate than the number of functions or the number of injections. (Of course, for ...
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An elementary number theoretic infinite series
For a positive integer $k$, let $d(k)$ be the number of divisors of $k$. So $d(1)=1$, $d(p)=2$ if $p$ is a prime, $d(6)=4$, and $d(12)=6$.
What are the precise asymptotics of $\sum_{k=1}^n 1/(k d(k))...
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The probability for a sequence to have small partial sums
The question
Let $a_1,a_2,\dots,a_n$ be a sequence whose entries are +1 or -1. Let t be a parameter. My question is to give an estimate for the number of such sequences so that
$|a_1+a_2+\dots ...
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Analytic continuation of Dirichlet series with completely multiplicative coefficients of modulus 1
A sequence $a_n \in \mathbb{T}$ ($n \geq 1$) satisfying $a_{mn} = a_m a_n$ for all $m, n \geq 1$ defines a Dirichlet series $f(s) = \sum_n a_n n^{-s}$, absolutely convergent for $\Re s > 1$. If in ...
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Is this a well-known probabilistic model?
While I was thinking about the Erdős discrepancy problem, the following random walk model arose rather naturally. You fix a positive integer k, and you take a random step of 1 or -1 at each stage,...
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Why does the Riemann zeta function have non-trivial zeros?
This is a very basic question of course, and exposes my serious ignorance of analytic number theory, but what I am looking for is a good intuitive explanation rather than a formal proof (though a ...
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Experimental mathematics leading to major advances
I would like to ask about examples where experimentation by computers has led to major mathematical advances.
A new look
Now as the question is five years old and there are certainly more examples of ...
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Improving a sequence of 1s and -1s
Suppose you take a $\pm 1$ sequence and you want to "improve it" by taking pointwise limits of translates. What properties can you guarantee to get in the limit?
Two examples illustrate what I think ...
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Finding the codomain of a monoid homomorphism
We have a monoid M, and a function $f: M \rightarrow \{0, 1\}$. We're promised that this function factors through a (surjective) homomorphism to a finite abelian group (considered as a commutative ...
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Partial sums of multiplicative functions
It is well known that some statements about partial sums of multiplicative functions are extremely hard. For example, the Riemann hypothesis is equivalent to the assertion that $|\mu(1)+\mu(2)+\dots+\...