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

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

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

$t\in [0,1)$

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

$E_{2}$

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

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

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

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

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

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

Given a sequence of polynomials $\{x_k(q)\}_{k \ges 0}$, define the transformation

$$y_n(q) = a^n\sum\limits_{i = 0}^n {\left( \matrix{n \cr i} \right)} b^{n-i}x_i(q)$$

$n\ges 0$

$[x_{i+j}(q)]_{i,j \ges 0}$

$\{y_n(q)\}_{n\ges 0}$

One of the open questions in the study of Carmichael numbers is whether, for a given $R\geq 3$, there exist infinitely many Carmichael numbers with exactly $R$ prime factors. Chernick [‘On Fermat’s simple theorem’, Bull. Amer. Math. Soc.45 (1935), 269–274] proved that Dickson’s $k$-tuple conjecture would imply a positive result for all such $R$. Wright [‘Factors of Carmichael numbers and a weak $k$-tuples conjecture’, J. Aust. Math. Soc.100(3) (2016), 421–429] showed that a weakened version of Dickson’s conjecture would imply that there are an infinitude of $R$ for which there are infinitely many such Carmichael numbers. In this paper, we improve on our 2016 result by weakening the required conjecture even further.

Let $n,r,k\in \mathbb{N}$. An $r$-colouring of the vertices of a regular $n$-gon is any mapping $\unicode[STIX]{x1D712}:\mathbb{Z}_{n}\rightarrow \{1,2,\ldots ,r\}$. Two colourings are equivalent if one of them can be obtained from another by a rotation of the polygon. An $r$-ary necklace of length $n$ is an equivalence class of $r$-colourings of $\mathbb{Z}_{n}$. We say that a colouring is $k$-alternating if all $k$ consecutive vertices have pairwise distinct colours. We compute the smallest number $r$ for which there exists a $k$-alternating $r$-colouring of $\mathbb{Z}_{n}$ and we count, for any $r$, 2-alternating $r$-colourings of $\mathbb{Z}_{n}$ and 2-alternating $r$-ary necklaces of length $n$.

In this note, we provide refined estimates of two sums involving the Euler totient function,

$$\begin{eqnarray}\mathop{\sum }_{n\leq x}\unicode[STIX]{x1D719}\biggl(\biggl[\frac{x}{n}\biggr]\biggr)\quad \text{and}\quad \mathop{\sum }_{n\leq x}\frac{\unicode[STIX]{x1D719}([x/n])}{[x/n]},\end{eqnarray}$$

$[x]$

$x$

In this paper we study digit frequencies in the setting of expansions in non-integer bases, and self-affine sets with non-empty interior. Within expansions in non-integer bases we show that if $\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FD}\in (1,1.787\ldots )$ then every $x\in (0,1/(\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FD}-1))$ has a simply normal $\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FD}$-expansion. We also prove that if $\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FD}\in (1,(1+\sqrt{5})/2)$ then every $x\in (0,1/(\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FD}-1))$ has a $\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FD}$-expansion for which the digit frequency does not exist, and a $\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FD}$-expansion with limiting frequency of zeros $p$, where $p$ is any real number sufficiently close to $1/2$. For a class of planar self-affine sets we show that if the horizontal contraction lies in a certain parameter space and the vertical contractions are sufficiently close to $1$, then every non-trivial vertical fibre contains an interval. Our approach lends itself to explicit calculation and gives rise to new examples of self-affine sets with non-empty interior. One particular strength of our approach is that it allows for different rates of contraction in the vertical direction.

In 1984, K. Mahler asked how well elements in the Cantor middle third set can be approximated by rational numbers from that set and by rational numbers outside of that set. We consider more general missing digit sets $C$ and construct numbers in $C$ that are arbitrarily well approximable by rationals in $C$, but badly approximable by rationals outside of $C$. More precisely, we construct them so that all but finitely many of their convergents lie in $C$.

Let $n$ be a positive integer. We obtain new Menon’s identities by using the actions of some subgroups of $(\mathbb{Z}/n\mathbb{Z})^{\times }$ on the set $\mathbb{Z}/n\mathbb{Z}$. In particular, let $p$ be an odd prime and let $\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FC}$ be a positive integer. If $H_{k}$ is a subgroup of $(\mathbb{Z}/p^{\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FC}}\mathbb{Z})^{\times }$ with index $k=p^{\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FD}}u$ such that $0\leqslant \unicode[STIX]{x1D6FD}<\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FC}$ and $u\mid p-1$, then

$$\begin{eqnarray}\mathop{\sum }_{x\in H_{k}}(x-1,p^{\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FC}})=\frac{\unicode[STIX]{x1D711}(p^{\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FC}})}{k}\bigg(1+k(\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FC}-\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FD})+u\frac{p^{\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FD}}-1}{p-1}\bigg),\end{eqnarray}$$

$\unicode[STIX]{x1D711}(n)$

We prove two conjectural congruences on the $(p-1)$th Apéry number, which were recently proposed by Z.-H. Sun.

Let $q\geq 1$ be any integer and let $\unicode[STIX]{x1D716}\in [\frac{1}{11},\frac{1}{2})$ be a given real number. We prove that for all primes $p$ satisfying

$$\begin{eqnarray}p\equiv 1\!\!\!\!\hspace{0.6em}({\rm mod}\hspace{0.2em}q),\quad \log \log p>\frac{2\log 6.83}{1-2\unicode[STIX]{x1D716}}\quad \text{and}\quad \frac{\unicode[STIX]{x1D719}(p-1)}{p-1}\leq \frac{1}{2}-\unicode[STIX]{x1D716},\end{eqnarray}$$

$g$

$p$

$\text{gcd}(g,(p-1)/q)=1$

Let $k$ be an arbitrary positive integer and let $\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FE}(n)$ stand for the product of the distinct prime factors of $n$. For each integer $n\geqslant 2$, let $a_{n}$ and $b_{n}$ stand respectively for the maximum and the minimum of the $k$ integers $\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FE}(n+1),\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FE}(n+2),\ldots ,\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FE}(n+k)$. We show that $\liminf _{n\rightarrow \infty }a_{n}/b_{n}=1$. We also prove that the same result holds in the case of the Euler function and the sum of the divisors function, as well as the functions $\unicode[STIX]{x1D714}(n)$ and $\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FA}(n)$, which stand respectively for the number of distinct prime factors of $n$ and the total number of prime factors of $n$ counting their multiplicity.

Some congruences on conjectures of van Hamme are established. These results give partial answers to some of Swisher's conjectures.

Let $F$ be an integral linear recurrence, $G$ an integer-valued polynomial splitting over the rationals and $h$ a positive integer. Also, let ${\mathcal{A}}_{F,G,h}$ be the set of all natural numbers $n$ such that $\gcd (F(n),G(n))=h$. We prove that ${\mathcal{A}}_{F,G,h}$ has a natural density. Moreover, assuming that $F$ is nondegenerate and $G$ has no fixed divisors, we show that the density of ${\mathcal{A}}_{F,G,1}$ is 0 if and only if ${\mathcal{A}}_{F,G,1}$ is finite.

We construct a random model to study the distribution of class numbers in special families of real quadratic fields ${\open Q}(\sqrt d )$ arising from continued fractions. These families are obtained by considering continued fraction expansions of the form $\sqrt {D(n)} = [f(n),\overline {u_1,u_2, \ldots ,u_{s-1} ,2f(n)]} $ with fixed coefficients u1, …, us−1 and generalize well-known families such as Chowla's 4n2 + 1, for which analogous results were recently proved by Dahl and Lamzouri [‘The distribution of class numbers in a special family of real quadratic fields’, Trans. Amer. Math. Soc. (2018), 6331–6356].