A two-variable Artin conjecture

DOI10.1006/JNTH.2000.2547MaRDI QIDQ5928011zbMATH OpenOpenAlexWikidataFDO

Publication date 19 March 2001

Published in Journal of Number Theory (Search for Journal in Brave)

Full work available at URL https://arxiv.org/abs/math/9912250

Artin's conjecture linear recurrent sequences primitive roots

Congruences; primitive roots; residue systems (11A07) Recurrences (11B37) Distribution of integers in special residue classes (11N69)

Abstract: Let a and b be non-zero rational numbers that are multiplicatively independent. We study the natural density of the set of primes p for which the subgroup of the multiplicative group of the finite field with p elements generated by (amod p) contains (bmod p). It is shown that, under assumption of the generalized Riemann hypothesis (GRH), this density exists and equals a positive rational multiple of the universal constant S=prod_{p prime}(1-p/(p^3-1)). An explicit value of the density is given under mild conditions on a and b. This extends and corrects earlier work of P.J. Stephens (1976). Our result, in combination with earlier work of the second author, allows us to deduce that any second order linear recurrence with reducible characteristic polynomial having integer elements, has a positive density of prime divisors (under GRH).

Review text

Artin's conjecture considered those primes~\(p\) for which a specified number~\(a\) is a primitive root, and gives a value for the density of this set inside the set of all primes. In this form the conjecture was shown by \textit{C. Hooley} [J. Reine Angew.\ Math. 225, 209-220 (1967; Zbl 0221.10048)] to follow from a generalisation of the Riemann Hypothesis. NEWLINENEWLINENEWLINEThe authors consider the related density \(\delta(a,b)\) of those~\(p\) for which a specified~\(b\) is in the multiplicative subgroup generated by \(a,\bmod p\), where they allow \(a\) and~\(b\) to be rational numbers whose numerators and denominators are not divisible by~\(p\). A preprint by one of the authors considered the case when \(a\) and~\(b\) satisfy a non-trivial multiplicative relation \(a^x b^y = 1\), where it can be unconditionally proved that the density \(\delta(a,b)\) exists. Accordingly the authors suppose that no such relation holds. It is then a case of a theorem of \textit{G.~Pólya} that there are infinitely many primes of the type considered, but this argument does not show that the proportion of such primes has positive density. NEWLINENEWLINENEWLINEThey deduce an expression of the shape \(c_{a,b}C_0\) for the density \(\delta(a,b)\) from the Generalised Riemann Hypothesis. Here \(C_0\) is given by a certain infinite product over primes, but an explicit formula for~\(c_{a,b}\) would be rather complicated. However, in the case when the group \({\mathbb Q}^*/\langle-1,a,b\rangle\) is torsion-free (so that \(\pm a^x b^y\) is not an \(n\)th power in~\({\mathbb Q}^*\) when \(x\) and~\(y\) are not both divisible by~\(n\)) they give a one-line expression of \(c_{a,b}\) in terms of discriminants of the relevant quadratic fields. NEWLINENEWLINENEWLINEThe case of their theorem in which \(a\) and~\(b\) are coprime integers and not perfect powers occurs in a paper of \textit{P.~J.~Stephens} [J. Number Theory 8, No.~3, 313-332 (1976; Zbl 0334.10018)], but the authors do not agree with Stephens's evaluation of the constant~\(c_{a,b}\). NEWLINENEWLINENEWLINEA corollary of the authors' theorems deduces similar results for the set of primes dividing some member of a sequence given by a second order linear recurrence \(x_{k+2}=r x_{k+1}-sx_k\), provided \(X^2-rX+s\) splits in \({\mathbb Q}[X]\) and the sequence does not satisfy a first order recurrence.

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