On disjoint residue classes (Q5905552)

Let \(d=\prod_{i=1}^ r p_ i^{\alpha_ i}\) be the prime factorization of \(d\); denote by \(f(d)=\sum_{i=1}^ r \alpha_ i(p_ i-1)\). The main result of the paper is the following: Theorem. Let \(n_ 1,\dots,n_ k\) be positive integers. Suppose that \[ |\{\{i,j\}:\;1\leq i<j\leq k\text{ and }(n_ i,n_ j)=d\}|<\sqrt{(d+7)/8} \] holds for all \(d\in\mathbb{Z}^ +\) with \(f(d)\leq k-2\) (or \(d\leq 2^{k-2}\)) then there exist integers \(a_ 1,\dots,a_ k\) such that the residue classes \(a_ 1\pmod{n_ 1},\dots,a_ k\pmod{n_ k}\) are pairwise disjoint. (Conjecture: \(\sqrt{(d+7)/8}\) can be replaced by \(2d-1\).) This theorem improves a result by Huhn and Megyesi.