Article ID Journal Published Year Pages File Type
4593193 Journal of Number Theory 2016 14 Pages PDF
Abstract

In a recent work, Luca and Stănică examined quotients of the form φ(Cm)φ(Cn), where φ   is Euler's totient function and C0,C1,C2…C0,C1,C2… is the sequence of the Catalan numbers. They observed that the number 4 (and analogously 14) appears noticeably often as a value of these quotients. We give an explanation of this phenomenon, based on Dickson's conjecture. It turns out not only that the value 4 is (in a certain sense) special in relation to the quotients φ(Cn+1)φ(Cn), but also that the value 4k4k has similar “special” properties with respect to the quotients φ(Cn+k)φ(Cn), and in particular we show that Dickson's conjecture implies that, for each k  , the number 4k4k appears infinitely often as a value of the quotients φ(Cn+k)φ(Cn).

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Related Topics
Physical Sciences and Engineering Mathematics Algebra and Number Theory
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