All Questions
Tagged with pr.probability nt.number-theory
181 questions
11
votes
2
answers
1k
views
Heuristic lower bounds on small sums of roots of unity
Let $f(k,n)$ be the smallest non-zero absolute value of a sum of $k$ complex $n$th roots of unity. Asking for bounds in either direction, Tao suggested that a polynomial lower bound seemed plausible ...
- 13k
5
votes
2
answers
873
views
Exact formula for partial sums of Liouville function $L(n)$ (OEIS sequence A002819)
I am wondering if it is possible to get a useful exact formula, or at least some useful asymptotics, for the partial sums of the Liouville function (OEIS sequence A002819)
$$L(n)=\sum_{k=1}^n \lambda(...
- 3,098
8
votes
2
answers
387
views
Are we able to estimate the fraction of the domain where $\cos (ax)+2\cos (b x)$ with $\frac ab \notin\mathbb{Q}$ is positive?
We know that the two functions $\{\;\cos (ax),\;2\cos (b x)\;\}$ where $\frac ab \notin \mathbb{Q}$ are independently positive (and negative) over $\frac 12$ of the domain.
Is it possible to estimate ...
- 128k
14
votes
1
answer
1k
views
Normal numbers, Liouville function, and the Riemann Hypothesis
This is a question about whether or not some number $\lambda^*$ is normal in base 2. More specifically, I am wondering if $\lambda^*$ is not normal. Proving it is normal would be next to impossible, ...
- 3,098
5
votes
3
answers
601
views
Convergence speed of a random dyadic rational generator
We are given a multiset $M$ of real numbers which initially is equal to $\{0,1\}$. In a sequential fashion, at each round $r\in\mathbb{N}$
two distinct instances $x_r$ and $y_r$ of $M$'s numbers are ...
- 3,979
1
vote
0
answers
193
views
Theoretical invariant distribution of discrete dynamical systems, including the Riemann Zeta map
Update on 3/10/2021: I added Example 5 in the Appendix. This generic example encompasses the Riemann Zeta dynamical system. A simple version of this post, targeted to engineers, machine learning ...
- 3,098
7
votes
1
answer
431
views
What makes Gaussian distributions special? Local field version?
This question is inspired by the recent one about Gaussian measures over the reals:
What makes Gaussian distributions special?
I would be interested in a similar list of characterizations for the ...
- 2,137
3
votes
1
answer
315
views
Distribution of the first occurrence of a maximum (record) run of zeros in the digits of a normal number (say $\pi$)
If the question was stated to appeal to the general public, it would be something like this. For a number such as $\pi$ or $\sqrt{2}$, the digits in base $b$ appear to be randomly distributed. We are ...
- 3,098
12
votes
2
answers
820
views
Size of largest square divisor of a random integer
Let $x$ be an integer picked uniformly at random from $1 \ldots N$. Write $x = r^2 t$ where $t$ is square-free. How does the expected value of $r$ scale with $N$? Is anything known about the variance ...
- 151k
5
votes
2
answers
611
views
Sequences similar to $\{n\alpha\}$ that are both equidistributed and truly random-like
See update at the bottom.
Here the brackets represent the fractional part, and $\alpha \in [0, 1]$ is a positive irrational number. It is well known that the sequences $\{n\alpha\}$, $\{n^2\alpha\}$ ...
- 14k
2
votes
0
answers
147
views
Is there a way to gain such an estimate?
This problem could be viewed as a polynomial generalization of the Lonely runner conjecture. And $p$, $n$ are taken sufficiently large. Take $n\in \mathbb{N}^*$ fixed, $A_p \subset (\mathbb{Z} / p \...
- 5,429
3
votes
2
answers
973
views
Recursive random number generator based on irrational numbers
Here $\{\cdot\}$ and $\lfloor \cdot\rfloor$ denote the fractional part and floor functions respectively. For a negative, non-integer number $x$, we use the following definition: $\{x\}=1-\{-x\}$. If $...
- 3,098
3
votes
3
answers
330
views
Reference request: probability that d numbers are coprime
The following theorem can be found in Hardy-Wright (Theorem 459), except that they state it only for $d=2$. Do you know of a reference where the proof of this general statement is written?
Theorem: ...
- 12.3k
11
votes
0
answers
307
views
Entropy, magnitude, diversity of finite metric spaces in number theory
I was reading the article by Tom Leinster, (Maximizing
diversity in biology and beyond, arXiv link), and find it very interesting.
Since I was searching for entropies of finite metric spaces I found
...
CommunityBot
- 1
1
vote
1
answer
266
views
Probability a near universal hash function $ax \bmod p \bmod m$ produces an output from inputs equal modulo $m$
For one of the near universal hash functions $f(x) = ax \bmod p \bmod m$ where $p$ is prime and $m < p, m>1$ and $x$ ranges over $1 \dots p-1$ , what is the probability that given $x_r \in \{ x |...
- 7,217
0
votes
1
answer
220
views
Distributions associated with random sets and sums of random sets
Let's say you have an infinite random set $S$ of non-negative integers, and $T=S+S=\{x+y$ with $x,y\in S\}$. Let $N_S(z)$ be the number of elements of $S$ less than or equal to $z$; it is a random ...
- 3,098
11
votes
1
answer
1k
views
Smooth functions that resemble random walks
If the Riemann hypothesis holds, then the Mertens function $M(n)\equiv\sum_{x\leq n} \mu(n)$ behaves much like a 1D random walk. This includes the statements that
$M(n)$ changes sign infinitely often
...
1
vote
1
answer
388
views
Curious inversion formula in additive combinatorics
Let $S$ be an infinite set of positive integers, and $T=S+S=\{x+y, \mbox{ with } x,y\in S\}$.We definte the following functions:
$N_S(z)$ is asymptotic continuous version of the function counting the ...
- 3,098
1
vote
1
answer
199
views
Asymptotic for the probability that a number has $k$ prime factors less than $Q$
If we let $\omega_Q(n)$ denote the number of distinct prime factors of $n$ less than a bound $Q$, then what asymptotic formulas exist for $\Pr_{n\in\mathbb{N}}[\omega_Q(n)=k]$ as $Q\to\infty$ if $k$ ...
- 2,902
3
votes
0
answers
276
views
Infinitely many $n$ such that $\gcd(\lfloor n\sqrt{2}\rfloor, \lfloor n\sqrt{3}\rfloor)=m$
Is it true that for any positive integer $m$ there are infinitely many positive integers $n$ such that $\gcd(\lfloor n\sqrt{2}\rfloor, \lfloor n\sqrt{3}\rfloor)=m$?
$\lfloor x \rfloor$ is the floor ...
- 3,153
2
votes
1
answer
386
views
How balanced can abc triples be?
I was looking at the $241$ known "good" abc triples (i.e. with quality $\geqslant1.4$), wondering how frequently $a$ and $b$ would have more or less the same order of magnitude. The outcome is not ...
- 25.4k
0
votes
1
answer
138
views
Probabilistic interpretation of square free numbers and other properties
We can use the Lindberg condition to show the distribution of number of prime divisors of an integer approaches Gaussian.
Is there a similar probabilistic formulation for square free numbers? That is,...
- 1,826
5
votes
0
answers
614
views
is there a link with the probabilistic model for prime numbers?
Let $x \in \mathbb{R}_+$ and $k \in \mathbb{N}^{*}$.
Let :
$$\mathcal{A}(x)=\#\{(a_1, a_2, \ldots, a_k) \in \mathbb{P}^k \mid (a_1, a_2, \ldots, a_k \text{ verifying some properties}) \, , a_k \...
- 521
3
votes
1
answer
134
views
frequence of block of digits in Mobius sequence
Let $\mu$ be the Mobius function from $\mathbb{N}$ to $\{-1, 0, 1\}$. It is well known for the frequency of $-1, 1$, and $0$ for the sequence $(\mu(1), \mu(2), \mu(2), \dots, )$.
For any $k\in \...
- 10.4k
11
votes
4
answers
3k
views
If the sum of two independent random variables is discrete uniform on $\{a, \dots,a + n\}$, what do we know about $X$ and $Y$?
Basically I want to know whether the sum being discrete uniform effectively forces the two component random variables to also be uniform on their respective domains.
To be a bit more precise:
...
- 2,272
2
votes
1
answer
190
views
Can Mellin transform be applied in this function? What's the result?
$$f(x) = \mathop {\lim }\limits_{T \to \infty } {i}\int_{-1/2-i\,T}^{-1/2+i\,T} \frac{(x-1)^{s}}{2^{s+1}}\,\frac{1}{sin(\pi*s)\,}\,\frac{ds}{s}$$
- 188k
7
votes
1
answer
465
views
A theorem by Harald Cramér?
In the paper “On the order of magnitude of the difference between consecutive prime numbers” by Harald Cramér there is the following statement:
Suppose $\{X_n\}_{n=2}^\infty$ is a sequence of ...
- 2,600
2
votes
1
answer
152
views
Computationally random bitstreams and normalcy
Let $\mathbb{N}$ denote the set of non-negative integers. We can identify every bitstream, i.e. a function $s:\mathbb{N}\to \{0,1\}$, with some $A\in{\cal P}(\mathbb{N})$: take $A = s^{-1}(\{1\})$.
...
- 54.2k
4
votes
0
answers
141
views
Local behaviour of fractions with bounded denominator / Was it already studied?
My question is about a point process that I feel it would be natural to study, but that I have never heard of… This point process would represent, morally, the local behaviour of the set of fractions ...
- 284
7
votes
1
answer
436
views
What numbers can simulate 1/2?
Given two numbers $p,q\in(0,1)$, we say that $p$ can simulate $q$ if, given a biased coin with probability $p$, we can toss it a bounded number of times and use the results to simuate a biased coin ...
- 548
3
votes
0
answers
185
views
Lattice points in a rotated product-of-balls
Fix $U$ unitary over $\mathbb{R}^{K},$ take $U_n=I_{n\times n}\otimes U$ and denote the unit ball at 0 in $\mathbb{R}^n$ as $B^n$. For $d_1,\dots,d_K>0$, fix $S_n:=U_n\left(\prod_{k=1}^K d_k B^n\...
7
votes
2
answers
1k
views
An Expectation of Cohen-Lenstra Measure
The Cohen-Lenstra measure on the set of abelian p-groups assigns $\mathbb{P}(G) = \prod_{i \geq 1} \left( 1 - \frac{1}{p^i}\right) \cdot |\mathrm{Aut}(G)|^{-1} $. Apparently, this is equivalent to ...
CommunityBot
- 1
4
votes
0
answers
105
views
On a much weaker version of the Normal conjecture
I would like to ask you about the following question. It is conjectured that every algebraic irrational number is normal (absolutely normal). I know the result by Bugeaud and Adamczewski about the non-...
- 12.3k
8
votes
1
answer
171
views
On the existence of a particular type of finite measure on $\mathbb N$
Let $\mathbb N$ denote the set of all positive integers. Does there exist a countably additive measure $\mu : \mathcal P(\mathbb N) \to [0,\infty)$ such that $\mu(\mathbb N)<\infty$ and $\mu(\{nk: ...
- 12.8k
6
votes
0
answers
177
views
Determinant arising in a problem from probability
Consider the determinant:
$$\Delta:=
\left|\begin{array}{cccc}
A_{j_1} & A_{k_1} & A_{j_1}A_{k_1} & 1 \\
A_{j_2} & A_{k_2} & A_{j_2}A_{k_2} & 1 \\
A_{j_3 } & A_{k_3 } &...
- 3,587
6
votes
0
answers
360
views
Examples in which probabilistic heuristic reasoning fails
There are examples of conjectures in which one can use probabilistic heuristic reasoning to show that they are very likely to be true. For instance, Freeman Dyson used probabilistic heuristic ...
- 2,649
10
votes
2
answers
926
views
Isomorphisms between spaces of test functions and sequence spaces
I am in the process of writing some self-contained notes on probability theory in spaces of distributions, for the purposes of statistical mechanics and quantum field theory. Perhaps the simplest ...
- 799
32
votes
3
answers
12k
views
What is the Katz-Sarnak philosophy?
It has been recently mentioned by a speaker (his talk is completely not relevant to random matrix theory/RMT though) that modern statistics, especially random matrices theory, will help solving some ...
- 8,071
3
votes
0
answers
169
views
Why is the smallest (fractional) absolute central moment of a Gaussian distribution almost at $\sqrt{3}/2$?
Let $X$ be a standard normal random variable. What $\alpha$ minimizes $E|X|^{\alpha}$?
Numerically, $\alpha$ turns out to be equal to $\sqrt{3}/2-\varepsilon$ where $\varepsilon$ is of the order $10^...
26
votes
2
answers
2k
views
Is there any sense in which Dirichlet density is "optimal?"
A philosopher asked me an interesting math question today! We know that there are sets S of integers which don't have a "natural" or "naive" density -- that is, the quantity (1/n)|S intersect [1..n]| ...
- 50.6k
0
votes
0
answers
167
views
Prime gap heuristics (follows up my question "Moments of merit")
I previously asked generally what people knew or conjectured concerning the moments of the probability distribution governing $M_n:= g_n/\ln(p_n)$, the normalized $n$th prime gap (or ``merit''). Greg ...
- 17.6k
2
votes
1
answer
132
views
Independent decomposition of coordinate distribution
Let $\mathbf{x}$ be a random Gaussian vector in $\mathbb{R}^n$, i.e. $\mathbf{x}\sim\mathcal{N}(\mathbf{0},\mathbf{I}_n)$. Then for any fixed unit vector $\mathbf{u}$, one has $\mathbf{u}\mathbf{u}^\...
- 128k
3
votes
0
answers
286
views
What is the value of this simple game with primes?
Consider the following game. Alice selects an integer $n$ from $[1,b]$, while Bob selects an integer $m$ from $(a,b]$ (for concreteness, you may choose $a=10^{10}$ and $b=10^{1000}$). Alice wins if $m-...
- 781
23
votes
2
answers
2k
views
Parity of $\lfloor 1/(x y) \rfloor$ not equally distributed
A curious puzzle for which I would appreciate an explanation.
For $x$ and $y$ both uniformly and independently distributed in $[0,1]$,
the value of $\lfloor 1/(x y) \rfloor$ has a bias toward odd ...
- 63.9k
14
votes
3
answers
1k
views
Probability of coprime polynomials
Given positive integer $N$, we choose $m_1, m_2, n_1, n_2$ independently and with equal probabilities from $\{0,1,\ldots,N\}$, and let
$f_1 = x^{m_1} + (1+x)^{n_1}$ and $f_2 = x^{m_2} + (1+x)^{n_2}$ ...
- 54.2k
6
votes
3
answers
938
views
Uniformly distributed sequence in $\mathbb{R}$
We say that a sequence $(x_n)_{n=1}^\infty \subseteq \mathbb{R}$ is "uniformly distributed in $[a,b]$", with $a < b$, if $(x_n)_{n=1}^\infty \cap [a,b] \neq \varnothing$ and
$$\lim_{N \to \infty} \...
- 4,713
3
votes
2
answers
1k
views
Irrational number with known probability distribution on digits
Is there any irrational number that is known the probability distribution of digits?
Something like 0 appears 10% of time, 1 appears 10% of time, etc.
Probably irrational numbers that are defined ...
- 2,207
10
votes
2
answers
678
views
Irrational rotation - recurrence times
I consider the irrational rotation
$T_\alpha(x) = x + \alpha \text{ mod } 1$ for given irrational $\alpha \in [0,1]$. For a given open interval $A \subset [0,1]$ with length $|A|>0$, I consider the ...
- 24.2k
4
votes
0
answers
150
views
Dividing a finite arithmetic progression into two sets of same sum: always the same asymptotics?
This is inspired by the recent question How many solutions $\pm1\pm2\pm3…\pm n=0$.
The oeis entries A063865 linked to this question and A292476/A156700 for the related one "How many solutions $\pm1\...
- 13.4k
6
votes
1
answer
481
views
Probabilistic Proofs of Key Number-Theoretic Results
Given a positive integer $n$, let $p$ be the largest prime less than or equal to $n$.
Let $N(n)=2^{C_2}\cdots p^{C_p}$ be uniformly distributed from $1$ to $n$, and $M(n)=2^{Z_2}\cdots p^{Z_p}$ where ...
- 329