On odd covering systems with distinct moduli (Q2573654)

A covering system is a finite system of residue classes \(\{a_ i\pmod{n_ i}: i=1,\dots,k\}\) such that every integer belongs to at least one of the classes. An older conjecture of Erdős and Selfridge claims that there is no covering system with all moduli odd, distinct and \(>1\). The main result of the paper says that if such a covering system with all moduli square-free exists, then the least common multiple \(N=[n_1,\dots,n_k]\) has at least 22 prime divisors.