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The PUMP Journal of Undergraduate Research
Article . 2018 . Peer-reviewed
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Article . 2018
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https://dx.doi.org/10.48550/ar...
Article . 2017
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Differences of Harmonic Numbers and the abc-Conjecture

Differences of harmonic numbers and the \(abc\)-conjecture
Authors: da Silva, Natalia; Raianu, Serban; Salgado, Hector;

Differences of Harmonic Numbers and the abc-Conjecture

Abstract

Our main source of inspiration was a talk by Hendrik Lenstra on harmonic numbers, which are numbers whose only prime factors are two or three. Gersonides proved 675 years ago that one can be written as a difference of harmonic numbers in only four ways: 2-1, 3-2, 4-3, and 9-8. We investigate which numbers other than one can or cannot be written as a difference of harmonic numbers and we look at their connection to the abc-conjecture. We find that there are only eleven numbers less than 100 that cannot be written as a difference of harmonic numbers (we call these ndh-numbers). The smallest ndh-number is 41, which is also Euler's largest lucky number and is a very interesting number. We then show there are infinitely many ndh-numbers, some of which are the primes congruent to 41 modulo 48. For each Fermat or Mersenne prime we either prove that it is an ndh-number or find all ways it can be written as a difference of harmonic numbers. Finally, as suggested by Lenstra in his talk, we interpret Gersonides's theorem as "The abc-conjecture is true on the set of harmonic numbers" and we expand the set on which the abc-conjecture is true by adding to the set of harmonic numbers the following sets (one at a time): a finite set of ndh-numbers, the infinite set of primes of the form 48k+41, the set of Fermat primes, and the set of Mersenne primes.

Related Organizations
Keywords

Counting solutions of Diophantine equations, Mathematics - Number Theory, modular arithmetic, exponential Diophantine equation, \(abc\)-conjecture, 11A07, 11A41, 11D45, Primes, harmonic numbers, Gersonides' theorem, FOS: Mathematics, Congruences; primitive roots; residue systems, Number Theory (math.NT), Dirichlet's theorem

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selected citations
These citations are derived from selected sources.
This is an alternative to the "Influence" indicator, which also reflects the overall/total impact of an article in the research community at large, based on the underlying citation network (diachronically).
BIP!Citations provided by BIP!
popularity
This indicator reflects the "current" impact/attention (the "hype") of an article in the research community at large, based on the underlying citation network.
BIP!Popularity provided by BIP!
influence
This indicator reflects the overall/total impact of an article in the research community at large, based on the underlying citation network (diachronically).
BIP!Influence provided by BIP!
impulse
This indicator reflects the initial momentum of an article directly after its publication, based on the underlying citation network.
BIP!Impulse provided by BIP!
0
Average
Average
Average
Green
hybrid