For positive integers n and d > 0, let $G(\mathbb {Q}^n,\; d)$ denote the graph whose vertices are the set of rational points $\mathbb {Q}^n$, with $u,v \in \mathbb {Q}^n$ being adjacent if and only if the Euclidean distance between u and v is equal to d. Such a graph is deemed “non-trivial” if d is actually realized as a distance between points of $\mathbb {Q}^n$. In this paper, we show that a space $\mathbb {Q}^n$ has the property that all pairs of non-trivial distance graphs $G(\mathbb {Q}^n,\; d_1)$ and $G(\mathbb {Q}^n,\; d_2)$ are isomorphic if and only if n is equal to 1, 2, or a multiple of 4. Along the way, we make a number of observations concerning the clique number of $G(\mathbb {Q}^n,\; d)$.

By making use of the ‘creative microscoping’ method, Guo and Zudilin [‘Dwork-type supercongruences through a creative $q$-microscope’, Preprint, 2020, arXiv:2001.02311] proved several Dwork-type supercongruences, including some conjectures of Swisher. In this paper, we apply the Guo–Zudilin method to prove a new Dwork-type supercongruence, which uniformly generalises several conjectures of Swisher.

For a positive real number $t$, define the harmonic continued fraction

$$\begin{eqnarray}\text{HCF}(t)=\biggl[\frac{t}{1},\frac{t}{2},\frac{t}{3},\ldots \biggr].\end{eqnarray}$$

$$\begin{eqnarray}\text{HCF}(t)=\frac{1}{1-2t(\frac{1}{t+2}-\frac{1}{t+4}+\frac{1}{t+6}-\cdots \,)}.\end{eqnarray}$$

Fix an alphabet $A=\{0,1,\ldots ,M\}$ with $M\in \mathbb{N}$. The univoque set $\mathscr{U}$ of bases $q\in (1,M+1)$ in which the number $1$ has a unique expansion over the alphabet $A$ has been well studied. It has Lebesgue measure zero but Hausdorff dimension one. This paper describes how the points in the set $\mathscr{U}$ are distributed over the interval $(1,M+1)$ by determining the limit

$$\begin{eqnarray}f(q):=\lim _{\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FF}\rightarrow 0}\dim _{\text{H}}(\mathscr{U}\cap (q-\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FF},q+\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FF}))\end{eqnarray}$$

$q\in (1,M+1)$

$f(q)>0$

$q\in \overline{\mathscr{U}}\backslash \mathscr{C}$

$\mathscr{C}$

$f$

$\mathscr{U}$

$\mathscr{U}$

Erdös and Zaremba showed that $ \limsup_{n\to \infty} \frac{\Phi(n)}{(\log\log n)^2}=e^\gamma$ , γ being Euler’s constant, where $\Phi(n)=\sum_{d|n} \frac{\log d}{d}$ .

We extend this result to the function $\Psi(n)= \sum_{d|n} \frac{(\log d )(\log\log d)}{d}$ and some other functions. We show that $ \limsup_{n\to \infty}\, \frac{\Psi(n)}{(\log\log n)^2(\log\log\log n)}\,=\, e^\gamma$ . The proof requires a new approach. As an application, we prove that for any $\eta>1$ , any finite sequence of reals $\{c_k, k\in K\}$ , $\sum_{k,\ell\in K} c_kc_\ell \, \frac{\gcd(k,\ell)^{2}}{k\ell} \le C(\eta) \sum_{\nu\in K} c_\nu^2(\log\log\log \nu)^\eta \Psi(\nu)$ , where C(η) depends on η only. This improves a recent result obtained by the author.

We obtain a lower bound on the largest prime factor of the denominator of rational numbers in the Cantor set. This gives a stronger version of a recent result of Schleischitz [‘On intrinsic and extrinsic rational approximation to Cantor sets’, Ergodic Theory Dyn. Syst. to appear] obtained via a different argument.

We discuss a truncated identity of Euler and present a combinatorial proof of it. We also derive two finite identities as corollaries. As an application, we establish two related $q$-congruences for sums of $q$-Catalan numbers, one of which has been proved by Tauraso [‘$q$-Analogs of some congruences involving Catalan numbers’, Adv. Appl. Math. 48 (2012), 603–614] by a different method.

We introduce a notion of $q$-deformed rational numbers and $q$-deformed continued fractions. A $q$-deformed rational is encoded by a triangulation of a polygon and can be computed recursively. The recursive formula is analogous to the $q$-deformed Pascal identity for the Gaussian binomial coefficients, but the Pascal triangle is replaced by the Farey graph. The coefficients of the polynomials defining the $q$-rational count quiver subrepresentations of the maximal indecomposable representation of the graph dual to the triangulation. Several other properties, such as total positivity properties, $q$-deformation of the Farey graph, matrix presentations and $q$-continuants are given, as well as a relation to the Jones polynomial of rational knots.

Under sufficiently strong assumptions about the first prime in an arithmetic progression, we prove that the number of Carmichael numbers up to $X$ is $\gg X^{1-R}$, where $R=(2+o(1))\log \log \log \log X/\text{log}\log \log X$. This is close to Pomerance’s conjectured density of $X^{1-R}$ with $R=(1+o(1))\log \log \log X/\text{log}\log X$.

In this note we use some $q$-congruences proved by the method of ‘creative microscoping’ to prove two conjectures on supercongruences involving central binomial coefficients. In particular, we confirm the $m=5$ case of Conjecture 1.1 of Guo [‘Some generalizations of a supercongruence of Van Hamme’, Integral Transforms Spec. Funct.28 (2017), 888–899].

We prove irregularities in the distribution of prime numbers in any Beatty sequence ${\mathcal{B}}(\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FC},\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FD})$, where $\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FC}$ is a positive real irrational number of finite type.

A positive-definite diagonal quadratic form $a_{1}x_{1}^{2}+\cdots +a_{n}x_{n}^{2}\;(a_{1},\ldots ,a_{n}\in \mathbb{N})$ is said to be prime-universal if it is not universal and for every prime $p$ there are integers $x_{1},\ldots ,x_{n}$ such that $a_{1}x_{1}^{2}+\cdots +a_{n}x_{n}^{2}=p$. We determine all possible prime-universal ternary quadratic forms $ax^{2}+by^{2}+cz^{2}$ and all possible prime-universal quaternary quadratic forms $ax^{2}+by^{2}+cz^{2}+dw^{2}$. The prime-universal ternary forms are completely determined. The prime-universal quaternary forms are determined subject to the validity of two conjectures. We make no use of a result of Bhargava concerning quadratic forms representing primes which is stated but not proved in the literature.

For every integer $k\geq 2$ and every $A\subseteq \mathbb{N}$, we define the $k$-directions sets of $A$ as $D^{k}(A):=\{\boldsymbol{a}/\Vert \boldsymbol{a}\Vert :\boldsymbol{a}\in A^{k}\}$ and $D^{\text{}\underline{k}}(A):=\{\boldsymbol{a}/\Vert \boldsymbol{a}\Vert :\boldsymbol{a}\in A^{\text{}\underline{k}}\}$, where $\Vert \cdot \Vert$ is the Euclidean norm and $A^{\text{}\underline{k}}:=\{\boldsymbol{a}\in A^{k}:a_{i}\neq a_{j}\text{ for all }i\neq j\}$. Via an appropriate homeomorphism, $D^{k}(A)$ is a generalisation of the ratio set$R(A):=\{a/b:a,b\in A\}$. We study $D^{k}(A)$ and $D^{\text{}\underline{k}}(A)$ as subspaces of $S^{k-1}:=\{\boldsymbol{x}\in [0,1]^{k}:\Vert \boldsymbol{x}\Vert =1\}$. In particular, generalising a result of Bukor and Tóth, we provide a characterisation of the sets $X\subseteq S^{k-1}$ such that there exists $A\subseteq \mathbb{N}$ satisfying $D^{\text{}\underline{k}}(A)^{\prime }=X$, where $Y^{\prime }$ denotes the set of accumulation points of $Y$. Moreover, we provide a simple sufficient condition for $D^{k}(A)$ to be dense in $S^{k-1}$. We conclude with questions for further research.

Suppose $a^{2}(a^{2}+1)$ divides $b^{2}(b^{2}+1)$ with $b>a$. We improve a previous result and prove a gap principle, without any additional assumptions, namely $b\gg a(\log a)^{1/8}/(\log \log a)^{12}$. We also obtain $b\gg _{\unicode[STIX]{x1D716}}a^{15/14-\unicode[STIX]{x1D716}}$ under the abc conjecture.

Let $p>3$ be a prime and let $a$ be a rational $p$-adic integer with $a\not \equiv 0\;(\text{mod}\;p)$. We evaluate

$$\begin{eqnarray}\mathop{\sum }_{k=1}^{(p-1)/2}\frac{1}{k}\binom{a}{k}\binom{-1-a}{k}\quad \text{and}\quad \mathop{\sum }_{k=0}^{(p-1)/2}\frac{1}{2k-1}\binom{a}{k}\binom{-1-a}{k}\end{eqnarray}$$

$p^{2}$

We give a $q$-analogue of the following congruence: for any odd prime $p$,

$$\begin{eqnarray}\mathop{\sum }_{k=0}^{(p-1)/2}(-1)^{k}(6k+1)\frac{(\frac{1}{2})_{k}^{3}}{k!^{3}8^{k}}\mathop{\sum }_{j=1}^{k}\biggl(\frac{1}{(2j-1)^{2}}-\frac{1}{16j^{2}}\biggr)\equiv 0\;(\text{mod}\;p),\end{eqnarray}$$

$q$

Let $n$ be a positive integer and $a$ an integer prime to $n$. Multiplication by $a$ induces a permutation over $\mathbb{Z}/n\mathbb{Z}=\{\overline{0},\overline{1},\ldots ,\overline{n-1}\}$. Lerch’s theorem gives the sign of this permutation. We explore some applications of Lerch’s result to permutation problems involving quadratic residues modulo $p$ and confirm some conjectures posed by Sun [‘Quadratic residues and related permutations and identities’, Preprint, 2018, arXiv:1809.07766]. We also study permutations involving arbitrary $k$th power residues modulo $p$ and primitive roots modulo a power of $p$.

We prove that, given a positive integer $m$, there is a sequence $\{n_{i}\}_{i=1}^{k}$ of positive integers such that

$$\begin{eqnarray}m=\frac{1}{n_{1}}+\frac{1}{n_{2}}+\cdots +\frac{1}{n_{k}}\end{eqnarray}$$

$\{1/n_{i}\}_{i=1}^{k}$

We give a new formula for the number of cyclic subgroups of a finite abelian group. This is based on Burnside’s lemma applied to the action of the power automorphism group. The resulting formula generalises Menon’s identity.

For $\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FD}\in (1,2]$ the $\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FD}$-transformation $T_{\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FD}}:[0,1)\rightarrow [0,1)$ is defined by $T_{\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FD}}(x)=\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FD}x\hspace{0.6em}({\rm mod}\hspace{0.2em}1)$. For $t\in [0,1)$ let $K_{\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FD}}(t)$ be the survivor set of $T_{\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FD}}$ with hole $(0,t)$ given by

$$\begin{eqnarray}K_{\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FD}}(t):=\{x\in [0,1):T_{\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FD}}^{n}(x)\not \in (0,t)\text{ for all }n\geq 0\}.\end{eqnarray}$$

$E_{\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FD}}$

$t\in [0,1)$

$t\mapsto K_{\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FD}}(t)$

$E_{\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FD}}$

$\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FD}\in (1,2)$

$\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FD}\in (1,2)$

$E_{\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FD}}$

$\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FD}\in (1,2)$

$E_{\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FD}}$

$E_{2}$

$\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FD}\in (1,2)$

$\unicode[STIX]{x1D70F}_{\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FD}}$

$K_{\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FD}}(t)$

$t<\unicode[STIX]{x1D70F}_{\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FD}}$

$\unicode[STIX]{x1D70F}_{\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FD}}\leq 1-(1/\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FD})$

$\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FD}\in (1,2)$