We demonstrate that every difference set in a finite Abelian group is equivalent to a certain ‘regular’ covering of the lattice $ A_n = \{ \boldsymbol {x} \in \mathbb {Z} ^{n+1} : \sum _{i} x_i = 0 \} $ with balls of radius $ 2 $ under the $ \ell _1 $ metric (or, equivalently, a covering of the integer lattice $ \mathbb {Z} ^n $ with balls of radius $ 1 $ under a slightly different metric). For planar difference sets, the covering is also a packing, and therefore a tiling, of $ A_n $. This observation leads to a geometric reformulation of the prime power conjecture and of other statements involving Abelian difference sets.

The $\chi $-stability index $\mathrm {es}_{\chi }(G)$ of a graph G is the minimum number of its edges whose removal results in a graph with chromatic number smaller than that of G. We consider three open problems from Akbari et al. [‘Nordhaus–Gaddum and other bounds for the chromatic edge-stability number’, European J. Combin. 84 (2020), Article no. 103042]. We show by examples that a known characterisation of k-regular ($k\le 5$) graphs G with $\mathrm {es}_{\chi }(G) = 1$ does not extend to $k\ge 6$, and we characterise graphs G with $\chi (G)=3$ for which $\mathrm { es}_{\chi }(G)+\mathrm {es}_{\chi }(\overline {G}) = 2$. We derive necessary conditions on graphs G which attain a known upper bound on $\mathrm { es}_{\chi }(G)$ in terms of the order and the chromatic number of G and show that the conditions are sufficient when $n\equiv 2 \pmod 3$ and $\chi (G)=3$.

A graph G is called a $(P_{\geq n},k)$-factor-critical covered graph if for any $Q\subseteq V(G)$ with $|Q|=k$ and any $e\in E(G-Q)$, $G-Q$ has a $P_{\geq n}$-factor covering e. We demonstrate that (i) a $(k+1)$-connected graph G with at least $k+3$ vertices is a $(P_{\geq 3},k)$-factor-critical covered graph if its toughness $t(G)>{(2+k)}/{3}$; (ii) a $(k+2)$-connected graph G is a $(P_{\geq 3},k)$-factor-critical covered graph if its isolated toughness $I(G)>{(5+k)}/{3}$. Furthermore, we show that the conditions on $t(G)$ and $I(G)$ are sharp.

We prove a divisibility result on sums involving the Apéry-like polynomials

$$ \begin{align*} V_n(x)=\sum_{k=0}^n {n\choose k}{n+k\choose k}{x\choose k}{x+k\choose k}, \end{align*} $$

which confirms a conjectural congruence of Z.-H. Sun. Our proof relies on some combinatorial identities and transformation formulae.

Let $k\geq 2$ be an integer. We prove that the 2-automatic sequence of odious numbers $\mathcal {O}$ is a k-additive uniqueness set for multiplicative functions: if a multiplicative function f satisfies a multivariate Cauchy’s functional equation $f(x_1+x_2+\cdots +x_k)=f(x_1)+f(x_2)+\cdots +f(x_k)$ for arbitrary $x_1,\ldots ,x_k\in \mathcal {O}$, then f is the identity function $f(n)=n$ for all $n\in \mathbb {N}$.

In 1946, Erdős and Niven proved that no two partial sums of the harmonic series can be equal. We present a generalisation of the Erdős–Niven theorem by showing that no two partial sums of the series $\sum _{k=0}^\infty {1}/{(a+bk)}$ can be equal, where a and b are positive integers. The proof of our result uses analytic and p-adic methods.

Let $\mathbb {N}$ be the set of all nonnegative integers. For $S\subseteq \mathbb {N}$ and $n\in \mathbb {N}$, let $R_S(n)$ denote the number of solutions of the equation $n=s_1+s_2$, $s_1,s_2\in S$ and $s_1<s_2$. Let A be the set of all nonnegative integers which contain an even number of digits $1$ in their binary representations and $B=\mathbb {N}\setminus A$. Put $A_l=A\cap [0,2^l-1]$ and $B_l=B\cap [0,2^l-1]$. We prove that if $C \cup D=[0, m]\setminus \{r\}$ with $0<r<m$, $C \cap D=\emptyset $ and $0 \in C$, then $R_{C}(n)=R_{D}(n)$ for any nonnegative integer n if and only if there exists an integer $l \geq 1$ such that $m=2^{l}$, $r=2^{l-1}$, $C=A_{l-1} \cup (2^{l-1}+1+B_{l-1})$ and $D=B_{l-1} \cup (2^{l-1}+1+A_{l-1})$. Kiss and Sándor [‘Partitions of the set of nonnegative integers with the same representation functions’, Discrete Math. 340 (2017), 1154–1161] proved an analogous result when $C\cup D=[0,m]$, $0\in C$ and $C\cap D=\{r\}$.

We derive a q-supercongruence modulo the third power of a cyclotomic polynomial with the help of Guo and Zudilin’s method of creative microscoping [‘A q-microscope for supercongruences’, Adv. Math. 346 (2019), 329–358] and the q-Dixon formula. As consequences, we give several supercongruences including

$$ \begin{align*}\sum_{k=0}^{(p-2)/3}\frac{(\frac{2}{3})_k^3}{(1)_k^3}\equiv\frac{p}{2}\frac{(1)_{(p-2)/3}}{(\frac{4}{3})_{(p-2)/3}}\pmod{p^3},\end{align*} $$

where p is a prime with $p\equiv 5\pmod {6}$.

We use circulant matrices and hyperelliptic curves over finite fields to study some arithmetic properties of certain determinants involving Legendre symbols and kth power residues.

We give effective finiteness results for the power values of polynomials with coefficients composed of a fixed finite set of primes; in particular, of Littlewood polynomials.

We prove that if $s\ge 2$ is a fixed integer, then the equation $ns^n+1=(b^m-1)/(b-1)$ has only finitely many positive integer solutions $(n,b,m)$ with $b\ge 2$ and $m\ge 3$. When $s=2$, it has no solution.

In this note, we use Dedekind’s eta function to prove a congruence relation between the number of representations by binary quadratic forms of discriminant $-31$ and Fourier coefficients of a weight $16$ cusp form. Our result is analogous to the classical result concerning Ramanujan’s tau function and binary quadratic forms of discriminant $-23$.

For an (irreducible) recurrence equation with coefficients from $\mathbb Z[n]$ and its two linearly independent rational solutions $u_n,v_n$, the limit of $u_n/v_n$ as $n\to \infty $, when it exists, is called the Apéry limit. We give a construction that realises certain quotients of L-values of elliptic curves as Apéry limits.

We consider sums involving the divisor function over nonhomogeneous ($\beta \neq 0$) Beatty sequences $ \mathcal {B}_{\alpha ,\beta }:=\{[\alpha n+\beta ]\}_{n=1}^{\infty } $ and show that

$$ \begin{align*} \sum_{n\leq N,\ n\in\mathcal{B}_{\alpha,\beta}}d(n) =\alpha^{-1}\sum_{m\leq N}d(m) +O(N^{1-1/(\tau+1)+\varepsilon}), \end{align*} $$

where N is a sufficiently large integer, $\alpha $ is of finite type $\tau $ and $\beta \neq 0$. Previously, such estimates were only obtained for homogeneous Beatty sequences or for almost all $\alpha $.

Stark conjectured that for any $h\in \Bbb {N}$, there are only finitely many CM-fields with class number h. Let $\mathcal {C}$ be the class of number fields L for which L has an almost normal subfield K such that $L/K$ has solvable Galois closure. We prove Stark’s conjecture for $L\in \mathcal {C}$ of degree greater than or equal to 6. Moreover, we show that the generalised Brauer–Siegel conjecture is true for asymptotically good towers of number fields $L\in \mathcal {C}$ and asymptotically bad families of $L\in \mathcal {C}$.

Motivated by considerations of the quadratic orthogonal bisectional curvature, we address the question of when a weighted graph (with possibly negative weights) has nonnegative Dirichlet energy.

We present a family of counterexamples to a question proposed recently by Moretó concerning the character codegrees and the element orders of a finite solvable group.

Let $\pi $ be a set of primes. We say that a group G satisfies $D_{\pi }$ if G possesses a Hall $\pi $-subgroup H and every $\pi $-subgroup of G is contained in a conjugate of H. We give a new $D_{\pi }$-criterion following Wielandt’s idea, which is a generalisation of Wielandt’s and Rusakov’s results.

No group has exactly one or two nonpower subgroups. We classify groups containing exactly three nonpower subgroups and show that there is a unique finite group with exactly four nonpower subgroups. Finally, we show that given any integer k greater than $4$, there are infinitely many groups with exactly k nonpower subgroups.

We investigate some properties of complex structures on Lie algebras. In particular, we focus on nilpotent complex structures that are characterised by suitable J-invariant ascending or descending central series, $\mathfrak {d}^{\,j}$ and $\mathfrak {d}_j$, respectively. We introduce a new descending series $\mathfrak {p}_j$ and use it to prove a new characterisation of nilpotent complex structures. We also examine whether nilpotent complex structures on stratified Lie algebras preserve the strata. We find that there exists a J-invariant stratification on a step $2$ nilpotent Lie algebra with a complex structure.