A lower bound for the two-variable Artin conjecture and prime divisors of recurrence sequences

DOI10.1016/J.JNT.2018.06.017MaRDI QIDQ1788084zbMATH OpenOpenAlexWikidataFDO

Authors M. Ram Murty, François Séguin, C. L. Stewart

Publication date 8 October 2018

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

Full work available at URL https://arxiv.org/abs/1711.06410, http://hdl.handle.net/10012/14034

zbMATH Keywords

Artin's conjecturerecurrence sequencesThue equation

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Recurrences (11B37) Thue-Mahler equations (11D59) Distribution of integers in special residue classes (11N69)

Abstract: In 1927, Artin conjectured that any integer other than -1 or a perfect square generates the multiplicative group $mathbbZ/pmathbb{Z}^{i}mes$ for infinitely many $p$. In cite{MoSt}, Moree and Stevenhagen considered a two-variable version of this problem, and proved a positive density result conditionally to the generalized Riemann Hypothesis by adapting a proof by Hooley for the original conjecture (cite{Ho}). In this article, we prove an unconditional lower bound for this two-variable problem. In particular, we prove an estimate for the number of distinct primes which divide one of the first $N$ terms of a non-degenerate binary recurrence sequence. We also prove a weaker version of the same theorem, and give three proofs that we consider to be of independent interest. The first proof uses a transcendence result of Stewart cite{Stew}, the second uses a theorem of Bombieri and Schmidt on Thue equations cite{BoSc} and the third uses Mumford's gap principle for counting points on curves by their height cite{Mum}. We finally prove a disjunction theorem, where we consider the set of primes satisfying either our two-variable condition or the original condition of Artin's conjecture. We give an unconditional lower bound for the number of such primes.

Review text

In this nice paper, the authors prove unconditional lower bounds for the function that counts primes related to the Artin conjecture. Until now, the available bounds in the literature were conditional on the Generalized Riemann Hypothesis and they were worked out by \textit{C. Hooley} [J. Reine Angew. Math. 225, 209--220 (1967; Zbl 0221.10048)] and \textit{P. Moree} and \textit{P. Stevenhagen} [J. Number Theory 85, No. 2, 291--304 (2000; Zbl 0966.11042)]). The paper under review shows that if \(a\) and \(b\) are any nonzero integers with \(|a|>1\), then there are at least \(c\log x\) primes \(p\le x\) (here, \(c>0\) is a constant depending on \(a\) and \(b\)) such that \(b\) belongs to the multiplicative subgroup generated by \(a\) modulo \(p\). They achieve this by giving a lower bound for the number of distinct primes of the product \[ \prod_{\substack{1\le n\le N\\ u_n\ne 0}} u_n, \] where \(\{u_n\}_{n\ge 0}\) is a non degenerate binary recurrent sequence. Their result is that the above product has at least \((1-1/{\sqrt{2}}-\varepsilon)N\) distinct prime factors once \(N>N(\varepsilon)\), where \(\varepsilon>0\) is arbitrary. In case \(\{u_n\}_{n\ne 0}\) is a Lucas sequence, the above lower bound can be improved to \(N-9\) with equality happening for a few values of \(N\) and the Lucas sequence \(\{u_n\}_{n\ge 0}\) of characteristic polynomial \(x^2-x+2\). The proofs use results from prior work of the authors, especially [\textit{R. Gupta} and the first author, Invent. Math. 78, 127--130 (1984; Zbl 0549.10037); the third author, J. Reine Angew. Math. 333, 12--31 (1982; Zbl 0475.10009); in: Number theory and related fields. In memory of Alf van der Poorten. Based on the proceedings of the international number theory conference, Newcastle, Australia, March 12--16, 2012. New York, NY: Springer. 341--359 (2013; Zbl 1315.11011)].

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Cites work

• A remark on Artin's conjecture
• A Remark on Mordell's Conjecture
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• Artin's primitive root conjecture -- a survey
• Existence of primitive divisors of Lucas and Lehmer numbers (with an appendix by M. Mignotte)
• scientific article; zbMATH DE number 4033816 (Why is no real title available?)
• scientific article; zbMATH DE number 3570579 (Why is no real title available?)
• scientific article; zbMATH DE number 1466163 (Why is no real title available?)
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Cited in

(9)

• Prime divisors of sparse values of cyclotomic polynomials and Wieferich primes
• Comparing multiplicative orders mod \(p\), as \(p\) varies
• Simultaneous insolvability of exponential congruences
• Unified treatment of Artin-type problems
• scientific article; zbMATH DE number 4051743 (Why is no real title available?)
• A two-variable Artin conjecture
• Positive lower density for prime divisors of generic linear recurrences
• Composite values of shifted exponentials
• A note on the two variable Artin's conjecture

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