Let $f$ be a positive multiplicative function and let $k\geq 2$ be an integer. We prove that if the prime values $f(p)$ converge to $1$ sufficiently slowly as $p\rightarrow +\infty$, in the sense that $\sum_{p}|f(p)-1|=\infty$, there exists a real number $c>0$ such that the $k$-tuples $(f(p+1),\ldots,f(p+k))$ are dense in the hypercube $[0,c]^k$ or in $[c,+\infty)^k$. In particular, the values $f(p+1),\ldots,f(p+k)$ can be put in any increasing order infinitely often. Our work generalises previous results of De Koninck and Luca.
In this paper, we consider the mean value of the product of two real valued multiplicative functions with shifted arguments. The functions $F$ and $G$ under consideration are close to two nicely behaved functions $A$ and $B$, such that the average value of $A(n-h)B(n)$ over any arithmetic progression is only dependent on the common difference of the progression. We use this method on the problem of finding mean value of $K(N)$, where $K(N)/\log N$ is the expected number of primes such that a random elliptic curve over rationals has $N$ points when reduced over those primes.
Let $f(n)$ be a multiplicative function with $|f(n)|\leq 1, q$ be a prime number and $a$ be an integer with $(a, q)=1, χ$ be a non-principal Dirichlet character modulo $q$. Let $\varepsilon$ be a sufficiently small positive constant, $A$ be a large constant, $q^{\frac12+\varepsilon}\ll N\ll q^A$. In this paper, we shall prove that $$ \sum_{n\leq N}f(n)χ(n+a)\ll N\frac{\log\log q}{\log q} $$ and that $$ \sum_{n\leq N}f(n)χ(n+a_1)\cdotsχ(n+a_t)\ll N\frac{\log\log q}{\log q}, $$ where $t\geq 2, a_1, \ldots, a_t$ are distinct integers modulo $q$.
We prove some new lower bounds for the counting function $\mathcal N_{\mathcal C}(x)$ of the set of Novák-Carmichael numbers. Our estimates depend on the bounds for the number of shifted primes without large prime factors. In particular, we prove that $\mathcal N_{\mathcal C}(x) \gg x^{0.7039-o(1)}$ unconditionally and that $\mathcal N_{\mathcal C}(x) \gg xe^{-(7+o(1))(\log x)\frac{\log\log\log x}{\log\log x}}$, under some reasonable hypothesis.
We consider the multiplicative structure of sets of the form AA+1, where where A is a large, finite set of real numbers. In particular, we show that the additively shifted product set, AA+1 must have a large part outside of any generalized geometric progression of comparable length. We prove an analogous result in finite fields as well.
Using recent results from the theory of integer points close to smooth curves, we give an asymptotic formula for the distribution of values of a class of integer-valued prime-independent multiplicative functions.
Let $N(x,y)$ denote the number of integers $n\le x$ which are divisible by a shifted prime $p-1$ with $p>y$, $p$ prime. Improving upon recent bounds of McNew, Pollack and Pomerance, we establish the exact order of growth of $N(x,y)$ for all $x\ge 2y\ge 4$.
Let $f(n)$ be a multiplicative function satisfying $|f(n)|\leq 1$, $q$ $(\leq N^2)$ be a prime number and $a$ be an integer with $(a,\,q)=1$, $χ$ be a non-principal Dirichlet character modulo $q$. In this paper, we shall prove that $$ \sum_{n\leq N}f(n)χ(n+a)\ll {N\over q^{1\over 4}}\log\log(6N)+q^{1\over 4}N^{1\over 2}\log(6N)+{N\over \sqrt{\log\log(6N)}}. $$ We shall also prove that \begin{align*} &\sum_{n\leq N}f(n)χ(n+a_1)\cdotsχ(n+a_t)\ll {N\over q^{1\over 4}}\log\log(6N)\\ &\quad+q^{1\over 4}N^{1\over 2}\log(6N)+{N\over \sqrt{\log\log(6N)}}, \end{align*} where $t\geq 2$, $a_1,\,\cdots,\,…
We prove the infinitude of shifted primes $p-1$ without prime factors above $p^{0.2844}$. This refines $p^{0.2961}$ from Baker and Harman in 1998. Consequently, we obtain an improved lower bound on the the distribution of Carmichael numbers. Our main technical result is a new mean value theorem for primes in arithmetic progressions to large moduli. Namely, we estimate primes of size $x$ with quadrilinear forms of moduli up to $x^{17/32}$. This extends moduli beyond $x^{11/21}$, recently obtained by Maynard, improving $x^{29/56}$ from well-known 1986 work of Bombieri, Friedlander, and Iwaniec.
We show that if A is a subset of {1, ..., n} such that it has no pairs of elements whose difference is equal to p-1 with p a prime number, then the size of A is O(n(loglog n)^(-clogloglogloglog n)) for some positive constant c.
Assuming Dickson's conjecture, we obtain multidimensional analogues of recent results on the behavior of certain multiplicative arithmetic functions near twin-prime arguments. This is inspired by analogous unconditional theorems of Schinzel undertaken without primality assumptions.
Let $\mathcal{P}$ be the set of all primes and $π(x)$ be the number of primes up to $x$. For any $n\ge 2$, let $P^+(n)$ be the largest prime factor of $n$. For $0<c<1$, let $$T_c(x)=\#\{p\le x:p\in \mathcal{P},P^+(p-1)\ge p^c\}.$$ In this note, we proved that there exists some $c<1$ such that $$\limsup_{x\rightarrow\infty}\frac{T_c(x)}{π(x)}<\frac12,$$ which disproves a conjecture of Chen and Chen.
Let $\mathtt{PRIMES}$ be the set of all primes. We show that a multiplicative function which satisfies \[ f(p+q-2) = f(p) + f(q) - f(2) \text{ for }p,q \in \mathtt{PRIMES} \] is one of the following: \begin{enumerate} \item $f$ is the identity function \item $f$ is the constant function with $f(n)=1$ \item $f(n)=0$ for $n \ge2$ unless $n$ is odd and squareful. \end{enumerate} As a consequence, a multiplicative function which satisfies \[ f(a+b) = f(a) + f(b) \text{ for }a,b \in \mathtt{PRIMES}-1 \] is the identity function.
We prove the asymptotic formula for the fourth moment of automorphic $L$-functions of level $p^ν$, where $p$ is a fixed prime number and $ν\rightarrow \infty$. This paper is a continuation of work by Rouymi, who computed asymptotics of the first three moments at prime power level, and a generalization of results obtained for prime level by Duke, Friedlander & Iwaniec and Kowalski, Michel & Vanderkam.
We examine how closely a multiplicative function resembles an additive function. Given a multiplicative function $g$ and an additive function $f$, we examine the size of the quantity $E(f,g;x)=\# \{n\leq x:f(n)=g(n)\}$. We establish a lower bound for $E(Ω,g,x)$.
We prove that the upper bound for the van der Corput property of the set of shifted primes is O((log n)^{-1+o(1)}), giving an answer to a problem considered by Ruzsa and Montgomery for the set of shifted primes p-1. We construct normed non-negative valued cosine polynomials with the spectrum in the set p-1, p<=n, and a small free coefficient a_0=O((log n)^{-1+o(1)}). This implies the same bound for the Poincaré property of the set p-1, and also bounds for several properties related to uniform distribution of related sets.
We estimate from below the lower density of the set of prime numbers p such that p-1 has a prime factor of size at least p^c, where c lies in between 1/4 and 1/2. We also establish upper and lower bounds on the counting function of the set of positive integers n up to x with exactly k prime factors, counted with or without multiplicity, such that the largest prime factor of gcd(p-1 : p | n) exceeds n^{1/2k}.
Building on the concept of pretentious multiplicative functions, we give a new and largely elementary proof of the best result known on the counting function of primes in arithmetic progressions.
Let $E/\mathbf{Q}$ be a semistable elliptic curve of analytic rank one, and let $p>3$ be a prime for which $E[p]$ is irreducible. In this note, following a slight modification of the methods of Jetchev-Skinner-Wan, we use Iwasawa theory to establish the $p$-part of the Birch and Swinnerton-Dyer formula for $E$. In particular, we extend the main result of loc.cit. to primes of multiplicative reduction.
We bound from below the number of shifted primes p+s<x that have a divisor in a given interval (y,z]. Kevin Ford has obtained upper bounds of the expected order of magnitude on this quantity as well as lower bounds in a special case of the parameters y and z. We supply here the corresponding lower bounds in a broad range of the parameters y and z. As expected, these bounds depend heavily on our knowledge about primes in arithmetic progressions. As an application of these bounds, we determine the number of shifted primes that appear in a multiplication table up to multiplicative constants.
For integer $q$, let $χ$ be a primitive multiplicative character$\pmod q.$ For integer $a$ coprime to $q$, we obtain a new bound for the sums $$\sum_{n\le N}Λ(n)χ(n+a),$$ where $Λ(n)$ is the von Mangoldt function. This bound improves and extends the range of a result of Friedlander, Gong and Shparlinski
We establish an analog of the Hardy-Ramanujan inequality for counting members of sifted sets with a given number of distinct prime factors. In particular, we establish a bound for the number of shifted primes p+a below x with k distinct prime factors, uniformly for all positive integers k.
Given a finitely generated multiplicative subgroup of rational numbers $Γ$, assuming the Generalized Riemann Hypothesis, we determine an asymptotic formula for average over prime numbers, powers of the order of the reduction group modulo $p$. The problem was considered in the case of rank $1$ by Pomerance and Kurlberg. In the case when $Γ$ contains only positive numbers, we give an explicit expression for the involved density in terms of an Euler product. We conclude with some numerical computations.
We derive, for all prime moduli p except those in a very thin set, an upper bound for the least prime primitive root (mod p) of order of magnitude a constant power of log p. The improvement over previous results, where the upper bound was log p to an exponent tending to infinity with p, lies in the use of the linear sieve (a particular version called the shifted sieve) rather than Brun's sieve. The same methods allow us to rederive a conditional result of Shoup on the least prime primitive root (mod p) for all prime moduli p, assuming the generalized Riemann hypothesis. We also extend both res…
We prove that there exists an absolute constant $c>0$ such that if an arithmetic progression $\cP$ modulo a prime number $p$ does not contain zero and has the cardinality less than $cp$, then it can not be represented as a product of two subsets of cardinality greater than 1, unless $\cP=-\cP$ or $\cP=\{-2r,r,4r\}$ for some residue $r$ modulo $p$.
Let $f$ be a Rademacher or a Steinhaus random multiplicative function. Let $\varepsilon>0$ small. We prove that, as $x\rightarrow +\infty$, we almost surely have $$\bigg|\sum_{\substack{n\leq x\\ P(n)>\sqrt{x}}}f(n)\bigg|\leq\sqrt{x}(\log\log x)^{1/4+\varepsilon},$$ where $P(n)$ stands for the largest prime factor of $n$. This gives an indication of the almost sure size of the largest fluctuations of $f$.
It is a folklore conjecture that the Möbius function exhibits cancellation on shifted primes; that is, $\sum_{p\le X}μ(p+h) \ = \ o(π(X))$ as $X\to\infty$ for any fixed shift $h>0$. This appears in print at least since Hildebrand in 1989. We prove the conjecture on average for shifts $h\le H$, provided $\log H/\log\log X\to\infty$. We also obtain results for shifts of prime $k$-tuples, and for higher correlations of Möbius with von Mangoldt and divisor functions. Our argument combines sieve methods with a refinement of Matomäki, Radziwiłł, and Tao's work on an averaged form of Chowla's conject…
In this article we consider the completely multiplicative sequences $(a_n)_{n \in \mathbf{N}}$ defined on a field $\mathbf{K}$ and satisfying $$\sum_{p| p \leq n, a_p \neq 1, p \in \mathbf{P}}\frac{1}{p}<\infty,$$ where $\mathbf{P}$ is the set of prime numbers. We prove that if such sequences are automatic then they cannot have infinitely many prime numbers $p$ such that $a_{p}\neq 1$. Using this fact, we prove that if a completely multiplicative sequence $(a_n)_{n \in \mathbf{N}}$, vanishing or not, can be written in the form $a_n=b_nχ_n$ such that $(b_n)_{n \in \mathbf{N}}$ is a non ultimate…
For each of the functions $f \in \{ϕ, σ, ω, τ\}$ and every natural number $k$, we show that there are infinitely many solutions to the inequalities $f(p_n-1) < f(p_{n+1}-1) < \dots < f(p_{n+k}-1)$, and similarly for $f(p_n-1) > f(p_{n+1}-1) > \dots > f(p_{n+k}-1)$. We also answer some questions of Sierpiński on the digit sums of consecutive primes. The arguments make essential use of Maynard and Tao's method for producing many primes in intervals of bounded length.
In part I of this paper we studied additive decomposability of the set $\F_y$ of th $y$-smooth numbers and the multiplicative decomposability of the shifted set $\g_y=\F_y+\{1\}$. In this paper, focusing on the case of 'large' functions $y$, we continue the study of these problems. Further, we also investigate a problem related to the m-decomposability of $k$-term sumsets, for arbitrary $k$.
In [10] the third author of this paper presented two conjectures on the additive decomposability of the sequence of ''smooth'' (or ''friable'') numbers. Elsholtz and Harper [4] proved (by using sieve methods) the second (less demanding) conjecture. The goal of this paper is to extend and sharpen their result in three directions by using a different approach (based on the theory of $S$-unit equations).
Let $\mathcal{P}$ denote the set of primes. For a fixed dimension $d$, Cook-Magyar-Titichetrakun, Tao-Ziegler and Fox-Zhao independently proved that any subset of positive relative density of $\mathcal{P}^d$ contains an arbitrary linear configuration. In this paper, we prove that there exists such configuration with the step being a shifted prime (prime minus $1$ or plus $1$).
Jacob's ladders, point of contact of the remainder in the prime-number law with the Fermat-Wiles theorem and multiplicative puzzles on some sets of integrals
We study equations of the form $σ(p^{q-1})=Az$, where $p$ is a prime, $q$ is a fixed odd prime, $A$ is a fixed integer and $z$ is an integer composed of primes in a fixed finite set. We shall improve upper bounds for the size and the number of solutions of such equations.
Let ${\mathcal H}$ be a multiplicative subgroup of $\mathbb{F}_p^*$ of order $H>p^{1/4}$. We show that $$ \max_{(a,p)=1}\left|\sum_{x\in {\mathcal H}} {\mathbf{\,e}}_p(ax)\right| \le H^{1-31/2880+o(1)}, $$ where ${\mathbf{\,e}}_p(z) = \exp(2 πi z/p)$, which improves a result of Bourgain and Garaev (2009). We also obtain new estimates for double exponential sums with product $nx$ with $x \in {\mathcal H}$ and $n \in {\mathcal N}$ for a short interval ${\mathcal N}$ of consecutive integers.
We show that if $N \geq \exp(\exp(\exp (k^{O(1)})))$, then any $k$-colouring of the primes that are less than $N$ contains a monochromatic solution to $p_1 - p_2 = p_3 -1$.
We show that there are infinitely many primes $p$ such that $p-1$ is divisible by a square $d^2 \geq p^θ$ for $θ=1/2+1/2000.$ This improves the work of Matomäki (2009) who obtained the result for $θ=1/2-\varepsilon$ (with the added constraint that $d$ is also a prime), which improved the result of Baier and Zhao (2006) with $θ=4/9-\varepsilon.$ Similarly as in the work of Matomäki, we apply Harman's sieve method to detect primes $p \equiv 1 \, (d^2)$. To break the $θ=1/2$ barrier we prove a new bilinear equidistribution estimate modulo smooth square moduli $d^2$ by using a similar argument as …
Let $p$ be an odd prime. Using I. M. Vinogradov's bilinear estimate, we present an elementary approach to estimate nontrivially the character sum $$ \sum_{x\in H}χ(x+a),\qquad a\in\Bbb F_p^*, $$ where $H<\Bbb F_p^*$ is a multiplicative subgroup in finite prime field $\Bbb F_p$. Some interesting mean-value estimates are also provided.
Under fairly general conditions, we show that families of integer-valued polynomial-like multiplicative functions are uniformly distributed in coprime residue classes mod $p$, where $p$ is a growing prime (or nearly prime) modulus. This can be seen as complementary to work of Narkiewicz, who obtained comprehensive results for fixed moduli.
