Prime density of Lehmer sequences (Q6546711)

The author computes the relative asymptotic density of the primes \(p\) dividing at least one term of a sequence of integers. More precisely, he computes for some given integer sequence \((a_n: n\ge 0)\), the value \N\[\N\lim_{x\to \infty}\frac{|\{p\in \mathbb{P} \cap [1,x]: p \text{ divides }a_n \text{ for some }n\ge 0\}|}{|\mathbb{P} \cap [1,x]|}, \N\]\Nwhere \(\mathbb{P}\) is the set of primes. In particular, the above limit has to exist. Connections are given with the well-established Hasse-Lagarias method for computing prime densities of certain Lucas sequences.\N\NMore precisely, the author proves the following result: fix integers \(R,Q\) with \(R>0\) and suppose that \((a_n: n\ge 0)\) is the (companion Lehmer) sequence defined by \(a_0:=2\), \(a_1:=1\), and \(a_n:=(\alpha^2+\beta^n)/b_n\) for all \(n\ge 2\), where \(\alpha\) and \(\beta\) are the two roots of the polynomial \(x^2-\sqrt{R}x+Q\), with \(b_n:=1\) for \(n\) even and \(b_n:=\sqrt{R}\) for \(n\) odd. Then the above limit is equal to \(2/3\) if \((R,Q)=(5,1)\) or if \((R,Q)=(2,-1)\).