Maximum gap in (inverse) cyclotomic polynomial (Q448219): Difference between revisions

Let \(\Phi_n(X)\) denote the \(n\)-th cyclotomic polynomial and \(\Psi_n(X)=(X^n-1)/\Phi_n(X)\), the \(n\)-th inverse cyclotomic polynomial. The authors are concerned with the maximum of the differences (gaps) between two consecutive exponents occurring in these polynomials, which they denote by \(g(\Phi_n)\), respectively \(g(\Psi_n)\). They reduce the study of these gaps to the case where \(n\) is square-free and odd. The first three cases are easy and the authors show that if \(p_1<p_2\) are odd primes, then \(g(\Phi_{p_1})=1\), \(g(\Psi_{p_1})=1\), and \(g(\Psi_{p_1p_2})=p_2-p_1+1\). They establish the following three theorems for the simplest non-trivial cases (with \(2<p_1<p_2<p_3\) arbitrary primes): Theorem 1. \(g(\Phi_{p_1p_2})=p_1-1\). Theorem 2. If \(p_2\geq 4(p_1-1)\) or \(p_3\geq p_1^2\), then \(g(\Psi_n)=2n/p_1-\deg(\Psi_n)\). Theorem 3. We have \[ \max\left\{p_1-1,{2n\over p_1}-\deg(\Psi_n)\right\}\leq g(\Psi_n)<2n\left({1\over p_1}+{1\over p_2}+{1\over p_3}\right)-\deg(\Psi_n). \] Note that the degree of \(\Psi_n\) equals \(n-\varphi(n)\), with \(\varphi\) Euler's \(\varphi\)-function. The paper has various diagrams that are helpful in visualizing the proofs.