On a problem of Byrnes concerning polynomials with restricted coefficients, II

As in the earlier paper with this title, we consider a question of Byrnes concerning the minimal length of a polynomial with all coefficients in which has a zero of a given order at . In that paper we showed that for all and showed that the extremal polynomials for were those conjectured by Byrnes, but for that rather than . A polynomial with was exhibited for , but it was not shown there that this extremal was unique. Here we show that the extremal is unique. In the previous paper, we showed that is one of the 7 values or . Here we prove that without determining all extremal polynomials. We also make some progress toward determining . As in the previous paper, we use a combination of number theoretic ideas and combinatorial computation. The main point is that if is a primitive th root of unity where is a prime, then the condition that all coefficients of be in , together with the requirement that be divisible by puts severe restrictions on the possible values for the cyclotomic integer .

     

On the irreducibility of Hecke polynomials

Let be the characteristic polynomial of the th Hecke operator acting on the space of cusp forms of weight for the full modular group. We record a simple criterion which can be used to check the irreducibility of the polynomials . Using this criterion with some machine computation, we show that if there exists such that is irreducible and has the full symmetric group as Galois group, then the same is true of for each prime .

     

Jacobi sums and new families of irreducible polynomials of Gaussian periods

Let 2$">, an -th primitive root of 1, mod a prime number, a primitive root modulo and . We study the Jacobi sums , , where is the least nonnegative integer such that mod . We exhibit a set of properties that characterize these sums, some congruences they satisfy, and a MAPLE program to calculate them. Then we use those results to show how one can construct families , , of irreducible polynomials of Gaussian periods, , of degree , where is a suitable set of primes mod . We exhibit examples of such families for several small values of , and give a MAPLE program to construct more of them.

     

Finite SAGBI bases for polynomial invariants of conjugates of alternating groups

It is well-known, that the ring of polynomial invariants of the alternating group has no finite SAGBI basis with respect to the lexicographical order for any number of variables . This note proves the existence of a nonsingular matrix such that the ring of polynomial invariants , where denotes the conjugate of with respect to , has a finite SAGBI basis for any .     

On the modular curves

Let denote an elliptic curve over and the modular curve classifying the elliptic curves over such that the representations of in the 7-torsion points of and of are symplectically isomorphic. In case is given by a Weierstraß equation such that the invariant is a square, we exhibit here nontrivial points of . From this we deduce an infinite family of curves for which has at least four nontrivial points.

     

New convergence results on the generalized Richardson extrapolation process GREP for logarithmic sequences

Let as , where and are known for for some 0$">, but and the are not known. The generalized Richardson extrapolation process GREP is used in obtaining good approximations to , the limit or antilimit of as . The approximations to obtained via GREPare defined by the linear systems , , where is a decreasing positive sequence with limit zero. The study of GREP for slowly varying functions was begun in two recent papers by the author. For such we have as with possibly complex and . In the present work we continue to study the convergence and stability of GREPas it is applied to such with different sets of collocation points that have been used in practical situations. In particular, we consider the cases in which (i) are arbitrary, (ii) , (iii) as for some 0$">, (iv) for all , (v) , and (vi) for all .

     

Analysis of PSLQ, an integer relation finding algorithm

Let be either the real, complex, or quaternion number system and let be the corresponding integers. Let be a vector in . The vector has an integer relation if there exists a vector , , such that . In this paper we define the parameterized integer relation construction algorithm PSLQ, where the parameter can be freely chosen in a certain interval. Beginning with an arbitrary vector , iterations of PSLQ will produce lower bounds on the norm of any possible relation for . Thus PSLQ can be used to prove that there are no relations for of norm less than a given size. Let be the smallest norm of any relation for . For the real and complex case and each fixed parameter in a certain interval, we prove that PSLQ constructs a relation in less than iterations.

     

Families of irreducible polynomials of Gaussian periods and matrices of cyclotomic numbers

Given an odd prime we show a way to construct large families of polynomials , , where is a set of primes of the form mod and is the irreducible polynomial of the Gaussian periods of degree in . Examples of these families when are worked in detail. We also show, given an integer and a prime mod , how to represent by matrices the Gaussian periods of degree in , and how to calculate in a simple way, with the help of a computer, irreducible polynomials for elements of .

     

The number of primes is finite

For a positive integer let and let . The number of primes of the form is finite, because if , then is divisible by . The heuristic argument is given by which there exists a prime such that for all large ; a computer check however shows that this prime has to be greater than . The conjecture that the numbers are squarefree is not true because .

     

Linear quintuple-product identities

In the first part of this paper, series and product representations of four single-variable triple products , , , and four single-variable quintuple products , , , are defined. Reduced forms and reduction formulas for these eight functions are given, along with formulas which connect them. The second part of the paper contains a systematic computer search for linear trinomial identities. The complete set of such families is found to consist of two 2-parameter families, which are proved using the formulas in the first part of the paper.

     

Computation of relative class numbers of CM-fields by using Hecke -functions

We develop an efficient technique for computing values at of Hecke -functions. We apply this technique to the computation of relative class numbers of non-abelian CM-fields which are abelian extensions of some totally real subfield . We note that the smaller the degree of the more efficient our technique is. In particular, our technique is very efficient whenever instead of simply choosing (the maximal totally real subfield of ) we can choose real quadratic. We finally give examples of computations of relative class numbers of several dihedral CM-fields of large degrees and of several quaternion octic CM-fields with large discriminants.

     

Upper bounds for the prime divisors of Wendt's determinant

Let be an even integer, . The resultant of the polynomials and is known as Wendt's determinant of order . We prove that among the prime divisors of only those which divide or can be larger than , where and is the th Lucas number, except when and . Using this estimate we derive criteria for the nonsolvability of Fermat's congruence.

     

Two kinds of strong pseudoprimes up to

Let be an odd composite integer. Write with odd. If either mod or mod for some , then we say that is a strong pseudoprime to base , or spsp() for short. Define to be the smallest strong pseudoprime to all the first prime bases. If we know the exact value of , we will have, for integers , a deterministic efficient primality testing algorithm which is easy to implement. Thanks to Pomerance et al. and Jaeschke, the are known for . Conjectured values of were given by us in our previous papers (Math. Comp. 72 (2003), 2085-2097; 74 (2005), 1009-1024).

The main purpose of this paper is to give exact values of for ; to give a lower bound of : ; and to give reasons and numerical evidence of K2- and -spsp's to support the following conjecture: for any , where (resp. ) is the smallest K2- (resp. -) strong pseudoprime to all the first prime bases. For this purpose we describe procedures for computing and enumerating the two kinds of spsp's to the first 9 prime bases. The entire calculation took about 4000 hours on a PC Pentium IV/1.8GHz. (Recall that a K2-spsp is an spsp of the form: with primes and ; and that a -spsp is an spsp and a Carmichael number of the form: with each prime factor mod .)

     

New Fibonacci and Lucas primes

Extending previous searches for prime Fibonacci and Lucas numbers, all probable prime Fibonacci numbers have been determined for and all probable prime Lucas numbers have been determined for . A rigorous proof of primality is given for and for numbers with , , , , , , , , the prime having 3020 digits. Primitive parts and of composite numbers and have also been tested for probable primality. Actual primality has been established for many of them, including 22 with more than 1000 digits. In a Supplement to the paper, factorizations of numbers and are given for as far as they have been completed, adding information to existing factor tables covering .

     

A computational approach to Hilbert modular group fixed points

Some useful information is known about the fundamental domain for certain Hilbert modular groups. The six nonequivalent points with nontrivial isotropy in the fundamental domains under the action of the modular group for , , and have been determined previously by Gundlach. In finding these points, use was made of the exact size of the isotropy groups. Here we show that the fixed points and the isotropy groups can be found without such knowledge by use of a computer scan. We consider the cases and . A computer algebra system and a C compiler were essential in perfoming the computations.

     

On irregular prime power divisors of the Bernoulli numbers

Let ( ) denote the usual th Bernoulli number. Let be a positive even integer where or . It is well known that the numerator of the reduced quotient is a product of powers of irregular primes. Let be an irregular pair with . We show that for every the congruence has a unique solution where and . The sequence defines a -adic integer which is a zero of a certain -adic zeta function originally defined by T. Kubota and H. W. Leopoldt. We show some properties of these functions and give some applications. Subsequently we give several computations of the (truncated) -adic expansion of for irregular pairs with below 1000.

     

Finding prime pairs with particular gaps

By a prime gap of size , we mean that there are primes and such that the numbers between and are all composite. It is widely believed that infinitely many prime gaps of size exist for all even integers . However, it had not previously been known whether a prime gap of size existed. The objective of this article was to be the first to find a prime gap of size , by using a systematic method that would also apply to finding prime gaps of any size. By this method, we find prime gaps for all even integers from to , and some beyond. What we find are not necessarily the first occurrences of these gaps, but, being examples, they give an upper bound on the first such occurrences. The prime gaps of size listed in this article were first announced on the Number Theory Listing to the World Wide Web on Tuesday, April 8, 1997. Since then, others, including Sol Weintraub and A.O.L. Atkin, have found prime gaps of size with smaller integers, using more ad hoc methods. At the end of the article, related computations to find prime triples of the form , , and their application to divisibility of binomial coefficients by a square will also be discussed.

     

Random Fibonacci sequences and the number

For the familiar Fibonacci sequence (defined by , and for ), increases exponentially with at a rate given by the golden ratio . But for a simple modification with both additions and subtractions - the random Fibonacci sequences defined by , and for , , where each sign is independent and either or - with probability - it is not even obvious if should increase with . Our main result is that

with probability . Finding the number involves the theory of random matrix products, Stern-Brocot division of the real line, a fractal measure, a computer calculation, and a rounding error analysis to validate the computer calculation.

     

The Postage Stamp Problem: An algorithm to determine the

Given an integral ``stamp" basis with and a positive integer , we define the -range as

. For given and , the extremal basis has the largest possible extremal -range

We give an algorithm to determine the -range. We prove some properties of the -range formula, and we conjecture its form for the extremal -range. We consider parameter bases , where the basis elements are given functions of . For we conjecture the extremal parameter bases for .

     

Elliptic curves with nonsplit mod representations

We calculate explicitly the -invariants of the elliptic curves corresponding to rational points on the modular curve by giving an expression defined over of the -function in terms of the function field generators and of the elliptic curve . As a result we exhibit infinitely many elliptic curves over with nonsplit mod representations.