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1 vote
0 answers
116 views

Can all congruences for a third-order recurrence relation hold for some composite $n$?

Let $p$ be a prime with $p \gt 3$. Consider the polynomial $f = x^3 - 3x -1$. Suppose $f$ is irreducible over $\mathbb{F}_{p}$. Let $E$ be the splitting field of $f$ over $\mathbb{F}_{p}$, and let $\...
0 votes
0 answers
78 views

Factoring totient of a prime

Is it any easy to factor $p-1$ when $p$ is a prime compared to general factorization problem? What about when $2p+1$ is also a prime?
15 votes
2 answers
2k views

Question on the 52nd (known) Mersenne prime number

In a footnote to the list of known Mersenne prime numbers which can be found here, we read that the "ranking" therein is a provisional one since not all possible exponents between $57 \, 885 ...
93 votes
3 answers
6k views

A little number theoretic game

I came up with this little two player game: The players take turns naming a positive integer. When one player says the number $n$, the other player can only reply in two different ways: They can ...
35 votes
9 answers
9k views

Why is integer factoring hard while determining whether an integer is prime easy?

In 2002, the discovery of the AKS algorithm proved that it is possible to determine whether an integer is prime in polynomial time deterministically. However, it is still not known whether there is an ...
1 vote
2 answers
383 views

Is there any way to estimate this functions: $f(n)=\sum_{d|n}d\varphi(d)$ and $g(n)=\sum_{d|n}\frac{\varphi(d)}{d}$?

Let that $n$ be a natural number and $\varphi(n)$ be the Euler totient function. Is there any formula or estimation for computing functions $f,g$ such that: $$ f(n)=\sum_{d\mid n}d\varphi(d) $$ and $$ ...
11 votes
2 answers
1k views

Do consecutive integers have a big prime factor?

Let us say that three consecutive positive integers $(m-1,m,m+1)$ have a big prime factor if the largest prime factor $p$ of $N=(m-1)m(m+1)$ satisfies $e^p>N$. I ckecked that it is true for all $m&...
10 votes
2 answers
3k views

Can every integer be written as a sum of squares of primes?

This question is mainly inspired from a different problem I was working on. Is there a value of $k$ such that, for each $n\in \mathbb N$, the equation $$\sum_{i=1}^{k}x_i^2=n$$ is solvable in $x_1,\...
-2 votes
2 answers
149 views

Calculate the great common factor between $2^{2n+1}-1$ and $2^{4m+2}+1$ [closed]

How to calculate the great common factor between $2^{2n+1}-1$ and $2^{4m+2}+1$, where $n$ and $m$ are positive numbers. We guess that: the great common factor is $1$.
6 votes
0 answers
126 views

Equivalence of primes based on the partition of their Pisano periods

The period of Fibonacci numbers modulo $m$ is called Pisano period and its length is denoted as $\pi(m)$. Define the Pisano partition of $m$ as the set partition of the indices $\{0,1,\dotsc,\pi(m)-1\}...
12 votes
1 answer
2k views

Primality of a number of more than 50k digits

With modern tecnology is it possible to prove the primality of a number of more than 50k digits? Obviously not a prime for which specific methods for testing primality are known like Mersenne primes.
5 votes
4 answers
791 views

Proving a least prime factor

Suppose that I find a small prime factor $p$ dividing a large number $n$ and I wish to prove that it is the least prime dividing $n$. There are two obvious approaches: either factor $n/p$, or divide $...
15 votes
0 answers
365 views

Do primes of the form $4k+1$ ever lead the greatest prime factor race?

Analogous to Chebyshev's race between primes, I examined the race between primes in the greatest prime factors, GPF, of natural numbers. Similar to the regular prime race, in the GPF race, the ...
0 votes
2 answers
288 views

Counting powerful integers. Lower bounds

Remark:   The upper bounds are perhaps still more interesting; I may address them in another post. PROBLEM:   Find simple (numerically efficient) lower bounds for the number of powerful integers (...
5 votes
1 answer
234 views

What are the solutions in numbers of $xyz \mid x^n + y^n + z^n$, $x,y,z$ globally coprime

What are globally coprime integers $x,y,z\in \mathbb Z^*$ such that $xyz$ divide $x^n + y^n + z^n$? I have no other motivation for that problem but its inherent beauty and interest. Note that it can ...
2 votes
0 answers
300 views

How soon can we represent a number as the sum of two primes?

Posting in MO since it was unanswered in MSE. Goldbach's conjecture says that every even number can be represented as the sum of two primes. But how soon can we find such a representation. Taking $20 =...
9 votes
3 answers
584 views

Why is there an unexpected increase in the density of certain types of Goldbach primes?

Note: Posted in MO since it was unanswered in MSE. I was checking how quickly we can verify Goldbach's conjecture for a given even number $n$ and it was clear that searching backward starting from the ...
1 vote
0 answers
84 views

How common are semiprimes with equally bitsized factors among semiprimes with equal bitsize?

I am curious about the following after having looked at the paper "Almost primes in almost all short intervals", theorem 3 says: Almost all intervals $[x, x + \log^{3.51}{(x)}]$ with $x ≤ X$...
8 votes
1 answer
834 views

Are there highly composite prime gaps?

Definition: Highly composite prime gap The three composite numbers between the consecutive primes $643$ and $647$ each have at least three distinct prime factors. This is the first occurrence of prime ...
0 votes
0 answers
135 views

On a deterministic primes search problem

I feel the following problem might be resolved already. But I could not find any related answers. If $p_1,p_2,\dots,p_t$ are primes where $2\leq t=o(\log n)$ is there a prime within $$\prod_{i=1}^...
3 votes
1 answer
116 views

Can we construct composite Fermat pseudoprimes to integral algebraic bases?

Let $0\neq \beta\in\overline{\mathbb{Z}}$ and let $n$ be a positive integer coprime to $N_{\mathbb{Q}(\beta)/\mathbb{Q}}(\beta)$. Say that $n$ is a Fermat pseudoprime to base $\beta$ if $$\beta^{n^{[\...
0 votes
0 answers
118 views

what are all possible pairs (k,m) such that n=2k^2+ m^2

I am working on a problem in number theory and would like to count all possible ways to partition an integer $n\geq 1$ into pairs $(k,m)$ of positive integers such that $n=2k^2+m^2$ and $n=4k^2+m^2$. ...
5 votes
1 answer
237 views

On a result of Euler on pseudoprimes

In several sources (for instance on page 58 of the first ed. of Crandall & Pomerance book on prime numbers or at the end of this paper by J. H. Jaroma), I have seen a result that goes like this: ...
2 votes
0 answers
206 views

Sum of all primes below $n$ without listing all primes below $n$

Asymptotically there is around $\frac{n}{\ln n}$ primes below a given integer $n$. Thus $\frac{n}{\ln n}$ is a lower bound for the time complexity of any algorithm that at some point finds each prime ...
20 votes
1 answer
1k views

Possible contemporary improvement to bounded gaps between primes?

In his summary of his book Bounded gaps between primes: the epic breakthroughs of the early 21st century, Kevin Broughan writes Which brings me to my final remark: where to next in the bounded gaps ...
1 vote
0 answers
96 views

Smooth number pairs satisfying a congruence

Let $\mathcal P=\{p_1,\dots,p_{2t}\}$ be $2t$ primes between $2^\ell$ and $2^{\ell+1}$ and fix an exponent bound $a\in\mathbb Z_{\geq2}$. Fix $N\in\mathbb N$ whose prime factors $p$ satisfy $p>2^{\...
22 votes
1 answer
1k views

How to see that the determinant of this matrix is nonzero for all primes?

I'm trying to show that $\sum_{i = 0}^{p-2} (i+1)^{-1} t^{i+n}$ where $0 \leq n \leq p-2$ spans the vector space $\mathbb{F}_p[t]/(1-t)^{p-1}$ as a rank $p-1$ module over $\mathbb{F}_p$. In other ...
4 votes
0 answers
213 views

What is the complexity class of this problem without Cramer's conjecture?

The problem 'Given $0<a<b$ is there a prime in the interval $[a,b]$?' is in $\mathsf{NP}$. If we assume Cramer's conjecture the problem is in $\mathsf{P}$ since if $b-a>(\log a)^{2+\epsilon}$ ...
1 vote
1 answer
92 views

What are the complexity classes of these problems about divisibility and coprimality?

The problems 'Given $0<a<b$ and a prime $p<a$ is there an integer $\ell\in[a,b]$ such that $p|\ell$?' 'Given $0<a<b$ and an integer $q\not\in[a,b]$ is there an integer $\ell\in[a,b]$ ...
69 votes
1 answer
4k views

Iterations of $2^{n-1}+5$: the strong law of small numbers, or something bigger?

I've discovered what I believe is a quite remarkable sequence (A318970), defined by $$n_1 = 3,\qquad n_{k+1} = 2^{n_k-1}+5\quad(k\geq 1).$$ Here are the first four terms with their prime ...
9 votes
1 answer
858 views

Prove that there are no composite integers $n=am+1$ such that $m \ | \ \phi(n)$

Let $n=am+1$ where $a $ and $m>1$ are positive integers and let $p$ be the least prime divisor of $m$. Prove that if $a<p$ and $ m \ | \ \phi(n)$ then $n$ is prime. This question is a ...
7 votes
1 answer
1k views

Expressing primes $p\equiv 1 \pmod 3$ in the form $p = x^2 + xy + y^2$

Fermat famously showed that the only primes $p$ of the form $x^2 + y^2$ are the primes such that $p \equiv 1 \mod{4}$. Furthermore, we now know “effective” versions of Fermat's theorem, i.e. given a ...
6 votes
1 answer
242 views

Inductively computing Mersenne primes / perfect numbers?

For two sets $A,B$ set $A+B = \{a +b | a \in A,b \in B\}$. Let $(x_n)_{n \in \mathbb{N}}$ be independent variables. Let $\sigma(n)$ be the sum of divisors of $n$. Set $\hat{\phi}(1) = \{x_1\}$ and ...
5 votes
0 answers
339 views

About a diophantine equation from group theory

Is there any set of odd primes $\{p_1, p_2,..., p_k\}$ and natural numbers $a_1,..., a_k$ such that the following equation satisfied: $${p_1^{2a_1+1}+1 \over p_1+1}\times ....\times {p_k^{2a_k+1}+1 \...
2 votes
0 answers
287 views

Best known primality test for the whole intervals of integers up to $10^{20}$ — like the sieve of Eratosthenes

What are the best known primality test(s) for the whole intervals of integers up to $N=10^{20}$ ? "Best" means "have minimal amortized time per tested integer". That is, the ...
5 votes
3 answers
2k views

Goldbach conjecture and other problems in additive combinatorics

The field is also known as additive number theory. I am interested in sums $z=x + y$ where $x \in S, y\in T$, and both $S, T$ are infinite sets of positive integers. For instance: $S = T$ is the set ...
13 votes
0 answers
1k views

Why am I unable to find primes of the form $(9n)!+n!+1$?

See also Math StackExchange: Is there a prime of the form $(9n)!+n!+1$? Recently, user Peter from Math StackExchange asked for a prime of the form $(9n)!+n!+1$ (where $n$ is some natural number). ...
2 votes
0 answers
99 views

A problem in modular roots

We have three mutually coprime integers $r,t,M$ where $M\asymp K^{\frac12-2\epsilon}$ and $r,t\asymp K^{\frac14+\epsilon}$ holds with some fixed $\epsilon>0$ and $K>0$ is a large parameter. ...
7 votes
0 answers
274 views

Are there infinitely many zeroes of $\sum_{r = 1}^{n-1} \mu(r)\gcd(n,r) $?

Let $\mu(n)$ be the Möbius function and $S(x)$ be the number of positive integers $n \le x$ such that $$ \sum_{r = 1}^{n-1} \mu(r)\gcd(n,r) = 0 $$ My experimental data for $n \le 6 \times 10^5 $...
4 votes
1 answer
324 views

Higher roots modulo prime complexity best algorithm

Given integers $a,\ell$ and prime $p$ we need to find the roots of the algebraic equation $x^\ell\equiv a\bmod p$. We know there are at most $\ell$ such $x$. What is the best method to find all such ...
1 vote
1 answer
144 views

Factoring with partial information on gaps

If $N=PQ$ is a semi-prime with $P=N^{\frac12 +\delta}$ and $Q=N^{\frac12-\delta}$ then if we know $\delta\in(0,\frac12)$ to a reasonable precision we can factor $N$ quickly. What precision (number of ...
18 votes
3 answers
561 views

How to construct a small coprime?

Given an integer $n$, is there a deterministic algorithm to find in poly$(\log n)$ time an integer $q$, $n < q< n^{c}$, such that $gcd(q,n!)=1$? Here $c>1$ is some fixed constant. ...
12 votes
1 answer
547 views

Seeking references for finding primes infinitely often

I've been pondering this weakened version of the finding primes problem for a while: Is there an algorithm which given $k$ outputs a prime $p > 2^k$ in time $F(\log_2(p))$? This differs from ...
3 votes
0 answers
131 views

Improving prime number generation probability?

Deterministic generation of primes in polynomial time is unknown. Is there a way to probablistically in $O(n^c)$ time bound for some $c>0$ generate polynomially $\Omega(n^c)$ many integers in $[0,...
3 votes
2 answers
332 views

On generating squarefree integers and primes?

Given an $\alpha\in(0,1)$ and $n\in\Bbb N$ what are some known deterministic algorithms to sample $O(n^\alpha)$ (not just get one) square free integers of $n$ bits? Is it $O(n^{\alpha})$ complexity? ...
48 votes
4 answers
3k views

Twin primes conjecture and extrapolation method

Let $(p_1, p_2)$ be a twin prime pair, where we include $(2, 3)$. If $p_1 \equiv 1$ mod $4$ then we let $t_{(p_1, p_2)} := p_1 ^ 2 / p_2 ^ 2$ otherwise, we let $t_{(p_1, p_2)} := p_2 ^ 2 / p_1 ^ 2$. ...
7 votes
1 answer
382 views

Counting twin primes efficiently

This question, as well as its answers and comments, highlights a lot of unsettling numerical coincidences where certain sums over twin primes ostensibly converge to all kinds of weird values, however ...
1 vote
1 answer
153 views

Specializing non-trivial primality tests

Primes $p$ are integers with no factors (composite allowed) in $[1,p]$. There is a polynomial time test for them. Given an interval $[a,b]$ what is the best way to test given integer $q$ has no ...
1 vote
2 answers
346 views

Determining if a number is k-rough without factoring

A k-rough number is a natural number whose smallest prime factor is >= k, basically in opposition to the notion of a smooth number. Clearly, it's trivially easy to generate a k-rough composite number:...
5 votes
2 answers
314 views

Congruences for the non-divisors of Euler's $\phi(n)$

If $n$ is composite, then $\phi(n) < n-1$: hence, there is at least one number $d$ which does not divide $\phi(n)$ but divides$(n-1)$. We shall call $d$ the totient divisor of $n$. The purist will ...