Denser Egyptian fractions (Q4522647)

The author considers Egyptian fraction representations of positive rationals \(r\): \[ (1) \quad \sum_{i=1}^t \frac{1}{x_i}=r, \qquad x_1 > \ldots > x_t \geq 1. \] Let \({\mathcal H}_t(r)= \left\{ (x_1, \ldots , x_t) \in \mathbb{Z}^t: \text{ such that (1) holds} \right\}\). In this paper various results on the possible values of the \(x_i\) are considered. Let \(M_t(r)\) denote the smallest integer \(x\) that is the largest denominator \(x_1\) of all \(t\)-term representations of \(r\) in \({\mathcal H}_t(r)\). It was shown in the author's earlier paper ``Dense Egyptian fractions'' [Trans. Am. Math. Soc. 351, 3641-3657 (1999; Zbl 0927.11015)] that \(M_t(r) \leq C(r)t\) for some positive constant \(C(r)\). In the present paper this is improved to \[ M_t(r)= \frac{t}{1-e^{-r}}+ O_r\left( \frac{t \log \log 3t}{\log 3t}\right) \] for \(t \geq t_0(r)\), where \(t_0(r)\) is the least integer that allows a solution of (1). This is best possible since it is shown that the order of the error term cannot be improved. Let \({\mathcal L}_j(r)\) denote the set of integers that cannot be the \(j\)-th largest denominator in an Egyptian fraction representation of \(r\). It is shown that \({\mathcal L}_j(r)\) is finite for any integer \(j \geq 2\) and that \({\mathcal L}_j(r)\) is empty for sufficiently large \(j\). Let \(L_1(r,x)= |\{ 1 \leq n \leq x: n \in {\mathcal L}_1(r)\} |\). Then for \(x \geq 3\) the following estimates hold \[ x \dfrac{\log \log x}{\log x} \ll_r L_1(r,x) \ll_r x \dfrac{\log \log x}{\log x}. \] This gives a negative answer to the question of Erdős and Graham, whether \({\mathcal L}_1(r)\) has positive density. For recent work of a similar flavour we refer the reader to the work of \textit{Ernest S. Croot} III: ``On unit fractions with denominators from short intervals'' (to appear in Acta Arith.) and ``On some questions of Erdős and Graham about Egyptian fractions'' (to appear in Mathematika).