4
$\begingroup$

I tried to reproduce the results in a paper of Schemmel (where Schemmel's totients were introduced) enter link description here

$n$ consecutive numbers is an arithmetic sequence of numbers with common difference $n$ (e.g. 1,5,9,13 is a group of 4-consecutive integers)

1-consecutive numbers relatively prime to 35 are

1 2 3 4, 16 17 18 19, 31 32 33 34

11-consecutive numbers relatively prime to 35 are

1 12 23 34, 11 22 33 9, 26 2 13 24

I can follow all arguments in Schemmel's orignal paper but cannot find a proof for the generalization of Wilson's theorem stated in this paper.(highlighted in the image above)

It seems that in that times it was usual just to publish a theorem without a proof.

$\endgroup$
2
  • 5
    $\begingroup$ You forgot to mention that the scan in your post is taken from p. 147 of Dickson's "History of the Theory of Numbers" (Vol. I). For example, the footnote 190 says where Schemmel's paper appeared: Jour. fur Math. 70 (1869), 191-192. Maybe some readers here would like to be given such information. Lower down on that page Dickson mentions, with citations, that Lucas generalized Schemmel's function, Goldschmidt proved Schemmel's theorems and generalized some of them, and Bachmann proved the results of Schemmel and Lucas. Did you look at any of these other papers? $\endgroup$
    – KConrad
    Commented Jan 16, 2017 at 21:16
  • $\begingroup$ Thanks for this hint! I will try to get hold of copies of these works $\endgroup$ Commented Jan 16, 2017 at 21:31

1 Answer 1

5
$\begingroup$

The case $n=4$ and $m=35$ given in both the question and the original German paper (link now removed from question) is a little misleading. In this case the sets are disjoint. The case $n=2$ and $m=35$ shows a bit better what's going on. We're now counting pairs $(d,d+1)$ with both $d$ and $d+1$ coprime to 35, and these pairs can overlap (for example we count $(1,2)$ and $(2,3)$ etc). Clearly if $n$ is at least the smallest prime factor $p$ of $m$ then $\Phi_n(m)=0$ because in a run of $n$ consecutive integers, one will be a multiple of $p$, and in this case the yellow highlighted formula just claims that $1=1$, so this is fine.

To do the interesting case where $n$ is less than the smallest prime factor of $m$, we first get a feel for the question by proving the first formula. To give a run of $n$ consecutive integers is to give the smallest one, and if they're all prime to $p$ ($p$ some prime factor of $m$) then the smallest one had better be congruent to one of $1,2,3,\ldots,p-n$ modulo $p$. There are hence $p-n$ choices mod $p$ for the first term in the run, so if $p^a$ is the exact power of $p$ dividing $m$ then there are $p^{a-1}(p-n)$ choices mod $p^a$ for the first term, and the first formula follows by CRT. We also have a "formula" now for the $\lambda$'th term in any such run.

Now to the proof of the highlighted formula. WLOG $k=1$, because $k$ is coprime to $m$ by assumption, so every run with common difference $k$ is just $k$ times a run with common difference 1 (note that runs with common difference 1 will never "overflow" mod $m$ but runs with common difference $k$ might, as the 35 example shows).

By CRT it suffices to check the congruence modulo $p^a$ where $p$ is an arbitrary prime factor of $m$ and $p^a$ divides $m$ exactly. The $\lambda$'th term in a run of $n$ consecutive integers all coprime to $p$ will be $i+\lambda$ mod $p$ with $i=0,1,2,\ldots,p-n-1$, and we don't care what's going on modulo other primes, by CRT. So we set $D=\Phi_n(m/p^a)$ and observe that $\Phi_n(m)=(p-n)p^{a-1}D$.

Now I have to break into two cases because my brain hurts otherwise. If $a=1$ then modulo $p$ we have

$$P=\left((\lambda)(\lambda+1)\cdots(\lambda+p-n-1)\right)^D$$ and if we set $Q=\left((\lambda)(\lambda+1)\cdots(\lambda+p-n-1)\right)$ then by Wilson's theorem we have $Q(\lambda-1)!(-1)^{n-\lambda}(n-\lambda)!=-1$ modulo $p$. The highlighted assertion modulo $p$ now follows from Wilson's theorem and Fermat's Little Theorem.

If $a>1$ then it's a bit messier, unless I missed a trick. The same strategy works but we need to do all computations modulo $p^a$. Here's a sketch of something which will work. To proceed in this way, the sort of question we need to know the answer to is this: what is the product, modulo $p^a$, of all the integers between 1 and $p^a$ which are congruent to $\lambda,\lambda+1,...,p-n-1+\lambda$ modulo $p$? There's a trick for this though; to deal with the terms congruent to $j$ modulo $p$ we can replace $j$ by $j^{p^{a-1}}$; this doesn't change $j$ modulo $p$, but mod $p^a$ it replaces it by its Teichmueller lift which is a $p-1$st root of unity. So if $X$ is the product mod $p^a$ of all the numbers congruent to 1 mod $p$, then the product is $X^{p-n}$ multiplied by some $p-1$st root of unity congruent to our messy factorial thing $Q$ above, modulo $p^a$. This $p-1$st root of unity is also a Teichmueller lift, and you can see this on the right hand side because the factor $\Phi_n(m)$ has a factor of $\Phi_n(p^a)$ and hence of $p^{a-1}$. For $p=2$ the argument is a little different because you need to work mod 4. This reduces the question (modulo some unenlightening algebra) to computing $X$, the product mod $p^a$ of all the elements of $(\mathbf{Z}/p^a)^\times$ which are congruent to 1 mod $p$; for $p>2$ this is 1 mod $p^a$ because each element is cancelled by its inverse; for $p=2$ it's a bit messier but not really much harder (you just need to keep track of the elements of order 2). I don't really want to write down the details because I need to do the kitchen :-/ but if you really want to prove the result you should hopefully be able to piece it together from this.

$\endgroup$

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .