We generalize Dirichlet's diophantine approximation theorem to approximating any real number $α$ by a sum of two rational numbers $\frac{a_1}{q_1} + \frac{a_2}{q_2}$ with denominators $1 \leq q_1, q_2 \leq N$. This turns out to be related to the congruence equation problem $x y \equiv c \pmod q$ with $1 \leq x, y \leq q^{1/2 + ε}$.
We consider the question of approximating any real number $α$ by sums of $n$ rational numbers $\frac{a_1}{q_1} + \frac{a_2}{q_2} + ... + \frac{a_n}{q_n}$ with denominators $1 \leq q_1, q_2, ..., q_n \leq N$. This leads to an inquiry on approximating a real number by rational numbers with a prescribed number of prime factors in the denominator.
In this note we formulate some questions in the study of approximations of reals by rationals of the form a/b^2 arising in theory of Shr"odinger equations. We hope to attract attention of specialists to this natural subject of number theory.
The authors review results implicit in their recent paper [2] on the product/quotient representation of rationals by rationals of the type $( an + b )/ ( An+ B )$ and give a detailed account of a particular related non-intuitive simultaneous ( i.e. two dimensional ) representation of pairs of rationals.
In the present paper we investigate the limiting behaviour of short incomplete Gauss sums at random argument as the number of terms goes to infinity. We prove that the limit distribution is given by the distribution of theta sums and differs from the limit law for long Gauss sums studied by the author and Marklof. The key ingredient in the proof is an equidistribution theorem for rational points on horocycles in the metaplectic cover of SL(2,R).
Given a rational number $x$ and a bound $\varepsilon$, we exhibit $m,n$ such that $|x-12 s(m,n)|<\varepsilon$. Here $s(m,n)$ is the classical Dedekind sum and the parameters $m$ and $n$ are completely explicit in terms of $x$ and $\varepsilon$.
We consider a problem posed by Shparlinski, of giving nontrivial bounds for rational exponential sums over the arithmetic function $τ(n)$, counting the number of divisors of $n$. This is done using some ideas of Sathe concerning the distribution in residue classes of the function $ω(n)$, counting the number of prime factors of $n$, to bring the problem into a form where, for general modulus, we may apply a bound of Bourgain concerning exponential sums over subgroups of finite abelian groups and for prime modulus some results of Korobov and Shkredov.
Friedberg, Hoffstein and Lieman have constructed two related multiple Dirichlet series from quadratic and higher-order $L$-functions and Gauss sums. We compute these multiple Dirichlet series explicitly in the case of the rational function field. This is done by utilizing the functional equation of the $L$-functions and the functional equation relating the two multiple Dirichlet series. We also point out a very simple correspondence between these series and their $p$-parts.
We prove that $164634913$ is the smallest positive integer that is a sum of two rational sixth powers but not a sum of two integer sixth powers. If $C_{k}$ is the curve $x^{6} + y^{6} = k$, we use the existence of morphisms from $C_{k}$ to elliptic curves, together with the Mordell-Weil sieve, to rule out the existence of rational points on $C_{k}$ for various $k$.
In this paper we consider error sums of the form \[\sum_{m=0}^{\infty} \varepsilon_m\Big( \,b_mα- \frac{a_m}{c_m}\,\Big) \,,\] where $α$ is a real number, $a_m$, $b_m$, $c_m$ are integers, and $\varepsilon_m=1$ or $\varepsilon_m ={(-1)}^m$. In particular, we investigate such sums for \[α\in \big\{ π, e,e^{1/2},e^{1/3},\dots, \log (1+t), ζ(2), ζ(3) \big\} \] and exhibit some connections between rational coefficients occurring in error sums for Apéry's continued fraction for $ζ(2)$ and well-known integer sequences. The concept of the paper generalizes the theory of ordinary error sums, which are…
In this paper we mainly study sums of four rational squares with certain restrictions. Let $\mathbb Q_{\ge0}$ be the set of nonnegative rational numbers. We establish the following four-square theorem for rational numbers: For any $a,b,c,d\in\mathbb Q_{\ge0}$, each $r\in\mathbb Q_{\ge0}$ can be written as $x^2+y^2+z^2+w^2$ with $x,y,z,w\in\mathbb Q_{\ge0}$ such that $ax+by+cz+dw$ is a rational square (or a rational cube). This paper also contains many conjectures; for example, for any positive integers $a$ and $b$ with $\gcd(a,b)=1$, we conjecture that each $r\in\mathbb Q_{\ge0}$ can be writte…
Counting functions are constructed for sums of integers raised to a fixed positive rational power. That is, given values formed by $u_1^{j/k} + u_2^{j/k} + ... + u_l^{j/k}$, $u_i \in \mathbb{Z}^+$, the number of values less than or equal to a given $w>0$ is determined. The counting functions developed are framed in terms of convolution exponentials, and are closely related to the Riemann zeta function. At the conclusion, several estimates are derived, with special emphasis on the case of sums of square roots, i.e. $j=1$, $k=2$.
Cotangent sums play a significant role in the Nyman-Beurling criterion for the Riemann Hypothesis. Here we investigate the maximum of the values of these cotangent sums over various sets of rational numbers in short intervals.
In this paper, by using the method of Contour Integral Representations and the Theorem of Residues and integral representations of series, we discuss the analytic representa- tions of parametric Euler sums that involve harmonic numbers through zeta values and rational function series, either linearly or nonlinearly. Furthermore, we give explicit formulae for several parametric quadratic and cubic sums in terms of zeta values and rational series. Moreover, some interesting new consequences and illustrative examples are considered.
We construct families of explicit polynomials f with rational coefficients that are sums of squares of polynomials over the real numbers, but not over the rational numbers. Whether or not such examples exist was an open question originally raised by Sturmfels. We also study representations of f as sums of squares of rational functions with rational coefficients. In the case of ternary quartics, we prove that our counterexamples to Sturmfels' question are the only ones.
Given a smooth projective variety $X$ over a number field $k$ and $P\in X(k)$, the first author conjectured that in a precise sense, any sequence that approximates $P$ sufficiently well must lie on a rational curve. We prove this conjecture for smooth split toric surfaces conditional on Vojta's conjecture. More generally, we show that if $X$ is a $\mathbb{Q}$-factorial terminal split toric variety of arbitrary dimension, then $P$ is better approximated by points on a rational curve than by any Zariski dense sequence.
We give explicit, polynomial-time computable formulas for the number of integer points in any two-dimensional rational polygon. A rational polygon is one whose vertices have rational coordinates. We find that the basic building blocks of our formulas are Dedekind-Rademacher sums, which are polynomial-time computable finite Fourier series. As a by-product we rederive a reciprocity law for these sums due to Gessel, which generalizes the reciprocity law for the classical Dedekind sums. In addition, our approach shows that Gessel's reciprocity law is a special case of the one for Dedekind-Rademach…
The paper gives some criteria for partial sums of rational number sequences to be not rational functions and to be not algebraic functions. As an application, we study partial sums of some famous rational number sequences in mathematical analysis with relevance to number theory.
We prove an upper bound on the log canonical threshold of a hypersurface that satisfies a certain power condition and use it to prove several generalizations of Igusa's conjecture on exponential sums, with the log-canonical threshold in the exponent of the estimates. We show that this covers optimally all situations of the conjectures for non-rational singularities, by comparing the log canonical threshold with a local notion of the motivic oscillation index.
The representation of integral binary forms as sums of two squares is discussed and applied to establish the Manin conjecture for certain Châtelet surfaces defined over the rationals.
We prove that any Mordell-Tornheim sum with positive integer arguments can be expressed as a rational linear combination of multiple zeta values of the same weight and depth. By a result of Tsumura, it follows that any Mordell-Tornheim sum with weight and depth of opposite parity can be expressed as a rational linear combination of products of multiple zeta values of lower depth.
Bowman and Bradley proved an explicit formula for the sum of multiple zeta values whose indices are the sequence (3,1,3,1,...,3,1) with a number of 2's inserted. Kondo, Saito and Tanaka considered the similar sum of multiple zeta-star values and showed that this value is a rational multiple of a power of π. In this paper, we give an explicit formula for the rational part. In addition, we interpret the result as an identity in the harmonic algebra.
Let $C$ be the middle third Cantor set and $μ$ be the $\frac{\log 2}{\log 3}$-dimensional Hausdorff measure restricted to $C$. In this paper we study approximations of elements of $C$ by dyadic rationals. Our main result implies that for $μ$ almost every $x\in C$ we have $$\#\left\{1\leq n\leq N:\left|x-\frac{p}{2^n}\right| \leq \frac{1}{n^{0.01}\cdot 2^{n}}\textrm{ for some }p\in\mathbb{N}\right\}\sim 2\sum_{n=1}^{N}n^{-0.01}.$$ This improves upon a recent result of Allen, Chow, and Yu which gives a sub-logarithmic improvement over the trivial approximation rate.
Let K be a totally real Galois number field. C. J. Hillar proved that if f in Q[x_1,...,x_n] is a sum of m squares in K[x_1,...,x_n], then f is a sum of N(m) squares in Q[x_1,...,x_n]. Modifying Hillar's proof, we improve the improve the bound given for N(m), the proof being constructive as well.
${\cal E}$ denotes the family of all finite nonempty $S\subseteq{\mathbb N}:=\{1,2,\ldots\}$, and ${\cal E}(X):={\cal E}\cap\{S:S\subseteq X\}$ when $X\subseteq{\mathbb N}$. Similarly, ${\cal F}$ denotes the family of all finite nonempty $T\subseteq{\mathbb Q}^+$, and ${\cal F}(Y) := {\cal F}\cap\{T:T\subseteq Y\}$ where ${\mathbb Q}^+$ is the set of all positive rationals and $Y\subseteq{\mathbb Q}^+$. This paper treats the functions $σ:{\cal E}\rightarrow{\mathbb Q}^+$ given by $σ:S\mapstoσS :=\sum\{1/x:x\in S\}$, the function $δ:{\cal E}\rightarrow{\mathbb N}$ defined by $σS = νS/δS$ where …
Let $s_q(n)$ denote the sum of the digits of a number $n$ expressed in base $q$. We study here the ratio $\frac{s_q(n^α)}{s_q(n)}$ for various values of $q$ and $α$. In 1978, Kenneth B. Stolarsky showed that $\lim\inf_{n\rightarrow\infty}\frac{s_2(n^2)}{s_2(n)}=0$ and that $\lim\sup_{n\rightarrow\infty}\frac{s_2(n^2)}{s_2(n)}=\infty$ using an explicit construction. We show that for $α=2$ and $q\geq 2$, the above ratio can in fact be any positive rational number. We also study what happens when $α$ is a rational number that is not an integer, terminating the resulting expression by using the fl…
For the solution $\{u_n\}_{n=0}^\infty$ to the polynomial recursion $(n+1)^5u_{n+1}-3(2n+1)(3n^2+3n+1)(15n^2+15n+4)u_n -3n^3(3n-1)(3n+1)u_{n-1}=0$, where $n=1,2,...$, with the initial data $u_0=1$, $u_1=12$, we prove that all $u_n$ are integers. The numbers $u_n$, $n=0,1,2,...$, are denominators of rational approximations to $ζ(4)$ (see math.NT/0201024). We use Andrews's generalization of Whipple's transformation of a terminating ${}_7F_6(1)$-series and the method from math.NT/0311114.
We prove new upper bounds on the number of representations of rational numbers $\frac{m}{n}$ as a sum of $4$ unit fractions, giving five different regions, depending on the size of $m$ in terms of $n$. In particular, we improve the most relevant cases, when $m$ is small, and when $m$ is close to $n$. The improvements stem from not only studying complete parametrizations of the set of solutions, but simplifying this set appropriately. Certain subsets of all parameters define the set of all solutions, up to applications of divisor functions, which has little impact on the upper bound of the numb…
In this paper we construct a generating polynomial over the rationals for the generic Newton polygon for the L function of exponential sums of the family of f = x^d+ a x^s parameterized by a, and prove some of its key properties. The generating polynomial encodes information of and determines the generic Newton polygon at each prime p when p is large enough, and vice versa.
We study real quadratic fields $\mathbb{Q}(\sqrt{D})$ such that, for a given rational integer $m$, all $m$-multiples of totally positive integers are sums of squares. We prove quite sharp necessary and sufficient conditions for this to happen. Further, we give a fast algorithm that solves this question for specific $m$, $D$ and we give complete results for $m \leq 5000$.
We study the number of lattice points in integer dilates of the rational polytope $P = (x_1,...,x_n) \in \R_{\geq 0}^n : \sum_{k=1}^n x_k a_k \leq 1$, where $a_1,...,a_n$ are positive integers. This polytope is closely related to the linear Diophantine problem of Frobenius: given relatively prime positive integers $a_1,...,a_n$, find the largest value of t (the Frobenius number) such that $m_1 a_1 + ... + m_n a_n = t$ has no solution in positive integers $m_1,...,m_n$. This is equivalent to the problem of finding the largest dilate tP such that the facet $\sum_{k=1}^n x_k a_k = t$ contains no …
For $0\leq α<1$ and prime number $p$ let $L(α,p)$ be the sum of the first $[αp]$ values of Legendre symbol modulo $p$. We study positivity of $L(α,p)$ and prove that for $|α-\frac13|<2\cdot 10^{-6}$ and for rational $α\leq \frac12$ with denominators in the set $\{1,2,3,4,5,6,8,12\}$ the inequality $L(α,p)\geq 0$ holds for majority of primes.
Following T. H. Chan, we consider the problem of approximation of a given rational fraction a/q by sums of several rational fractions a_1/q_1, ..., a_n/q_n with smaller denominators. We show that in the special cases of n=3 and n=4 and certain admissible ranges for the denominators q_1,..., q_n, one can improve a result of T. H. Chan by using a different approach.
For a number field $\mathbb{K}$, and integral ideals $\mathcal{I}$ and $\mathcal{J}$ in its number ring $\mathcal{O}_{\mathbb{K}}$, Nowak studied the asymptotic behaviour of the average of Ramanujan sums $C_{\mathcal{J}}({\mathcal{I}})$ over both ideals $\mathcal{I}$ and $\mathcal{J}$. In this article, we extend this investigation by establishing asymptotic formulas for the second moment of averages of Ramanujan sums over quadratic and cubic number fields, thereby generalizing previous works of Chen, Kumchev, Robles, and Roy on moments of averages of Ramanujan sums over rationals. Additionally…
We prove a stratification result for certain families of $n$-dimensional (complete algebraic) multiplicative character sums. The character sums we consider are sums of products of $r$ multiplicative characters evaluated at rational functions, and the families (with $nr$ parameters) are obtained by allowing each of the $r$ rational functions to be replaced by an "offset", i.e. a translate, of itself. For very general such families, we show that the stratum of the parameter space on which the character sum has maximum weight $n+j$ has codimension at least $j\lfloor(r-1)/2(n-1)\rfloor$ for $1\le …
We prove a number of conjectures due to Dinesh Thakur concerning sums of the form $\sum_P h(P)$ where the sum is over monic irreducible polynomials $P$ in $\mathbb{F}_q[T]$, the function $h$ is a rational function and the sum is considered in the $T^{-1}$-adic topology. As an example of our results, in $\mathbb{F}_2[T]$, the sum $\sum_P \tfrac{1}{P^k - 1}$ always converges to a rational function, and is $0$ for $k=1$.
By telescoping method, Sun gave some hypergeometric series whose sums are related to $π$ recently. We investigate these series from the point of view of Gosper's algorithm. Given a hypergeometric term $t_k$, we consider the Gosper summability of $r(k)t_k$ for $r(k)$ being a rational function of $k$. We give an upper bound and a lower bound on the degree of the numerator of $r(k)$ such that $r(k)t_k$ is Gosper summable. We also show that the denominator of the $r(k)$ can read from the Gosper representation of $t_{k+1}/t_k$. Based on these results, we give a systematic method to construct series…
Let $f$ be a homogeneous polynomial with rational coefficients in $d$ variables. We prove several results concerning uniform simultaneous approximation to points on the graph of $f$, as well as on the hypersurface $\{f(x_1,\dots,x_d) = 1\}$. The results are first stated for the case $f(x_1,\dots,x_d) = x_1^2+\dots+x_d^2,$ which is of particular interest.
Let $p$ be an odd prime, and let $a$ be a rational $p$-adic integer with $a\not\equiv 0\pmod p$. In this paper, using WZ method we establish the congruences for $\sum_{k=0}^{p-1} \binom ak^2(-1)^k(1-\frac 2ak)$ modulo $p^2$ and $\sum_{k=0}^{p-1} \binom ak^r(1-\frac 2ak)^s$ modulo $p^4$, where $r\in\{3,4\}$ and $s\in\{1,3\}$.
We consider quadratic Weyl sums $S_N(x;c,α)=\sum_{n=1}^N\exp\{2πi((\frac{1}{2}n^2+cn)x+αn)\}$ for $c=α=0$ (the rational case) or $(c,α)\notin\mathbb{Q}^2$ (the irrational case), where $x$ is randomly distributed according to a probability measure absolutely continuous with respect to the Lebesgue measure. The limiting distribution in the complex plane of $\frac{1}{\sqrt{N}}S_N(x;c,α)$ as $N\to\infty$ was described by Marklof [13] (respectively Cellarosi and Marklof [5]) in the rational (resp. irrational) case. According to the limiting distribution, the probability of landing outside a ball of…
In this note we shall study the Witten multiple zeta function associated to the Lie algebra so(5) defined by Matsumoto. Our main result shows that its special values at nonnegative integers are always expressible by alternating Euler sums. More precisely, every such special value of weight w>2 is a finite rational linear combination of alternating Euler sums of weight w and depth at most two, except when the only nonzero argument is one of the two last variables in which case $ζ(w-1)$ is needed.