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Erdős–Straus conjecture
The Erdős–Straus conjecture concerns a Diophantine equation, referred to as the Erdős–Straus Diophantine equation, involving unit fractions.
Conjecture. (Erdős Pál, Ernst G. Straus) The equation[1]
always has solutions for any integer .
It is trivial to see that for there can't be any solution!
You only have to check for primes , since any positive integer (except the unit 1) is a multiple of some prime , and
Thus , where is the number of solutions.
As of 2014, the conjecture has been checked up to 10 17.[2]
Contents
- 1 Truth of the conjecture for primes
- 2 Erdős–Straus conjecture for unit fractions from the open unit interval
- 3 Erdős–Straus conjecture for prime unit fractions from the open unit interval
- 4 Solutions (a, b, c) of 4/n = 1/a + 1/b + 1/c
- 5 Solutions (a, b, c) of 4/p = 1/a + 1/b + 1/c
- 6 Notes
- 7 External links
The Erdős–Straus conjecture means that we can always find some positive integer for which there exists at least one partition of such that each of the three parts divides into , i.e.
Thus , and
Again, we only have to consider the primes. For example:
Truth of the conjecture for primes
Truth of the conjecture for 2
For the only even prime, i.e. 2, we have the solution
Thus, the conjecture is true for any positive even integer.
Truth of the conjecture for primes congruent to 3 (mod 4)
If , we always have solutions since
where is the th triangular number.
Thus, the conjecture is true for any positive integer divisible by a prime congruent to 3 (mod 4).
Truth of the conjecture for primes congruent to 1 (mod 4)
If the conjecture is true for , then the conjecture would be true for any positive integer divisible by a prime congruent to 1 (mod 4).
Erdős–Straus conjecture for unit fractions from the open unit interval
Equivalently, any unit fraction from the open unit interval, i.e. , is one quarter of the sum of three (distinct or not) positive unit fractions[3]
Erdős–Straus conjecture for prime unit fractions from the open unit interval
If a solution is known for , then solutions are known for all multiples since
For example, since
we have
We can then obtain solutions for simply by multiplying both sides by :
Thus it is sufficient to prove that the conjecture is true for prime unit fractions.
Any prime unit fraction from the open unit interval, i.e. , is one quarter of the sum of three (distinct or not) positive unit fractions[4]
for any prime .
Solutions (a, b, c) of 4/n = 1/a + 1/b + 1/c
# | ||
---|---|---|
4 / 2 | (1, 2, 2) | 1 |
4 / 3 | (1, 4, 12), (1, 6, 6), (2, 2, 3) | 3 |
4 / 4 | (2, 3, 6), (2, 4, 4), (3, 3, 3) | 3 |
4 / 5 | (2, 4, 20), (2, 5, 10) | 2 |
4 / 6 | (2, 7, 42), (2, 8, 24), (2, 9, 18), (2, 10, 15), (2, 12, 12), (3, 4, 12), (3, 6, 6), (4, 4, 6) | 8 |
4 / 7 | (2, 15, 210), (2, 16, 112), (2, 18, 63), (2, 21, 42), (2, 28, 28), (3, 6, 14), (4, 4, 14) | 7 |
4 / 8 | (3, 7, 42), (3, 8, 24), (3, 9, 18), (3, 10, 15), (3, 12, 12), (4, 5, 20), (4, 6, 12), (4, 8, 8), (5, 5, 10), (6, 6, 6) | 10 |
Number of solutions (a, b, c) of 4/n = 1/a + 1/b + 1/c
A192786 Number of solutions of 4/n = 1/a + 1/b + 1/c in positive integers, n >= 1. (Unit fractions may be repeated.)
- {0, 3, 12, 16, 12, 45, 36, 58, 36, 75, 48, 136, 24, 105, 240, 190, 24, 159, 66, 250, 186, 153, 132, 364, 78, 129, 180, 292, 42, 531, 114, 490, 198, 159, 426, 526, 60, 201, 450, ...}
A192787 Number of distinct solutions of 4/n = 1/a + 1/b + 1/c in positive integers satisfying 1 <= a <= b <= c, n >= 1. (Unit fractions may be repeated.)
- {0, 1, 3, 3, 2, 8, 7, 10, 6, 12, 9, 21, 4, 17, 39, 28, 4, 26, 11, 36, 29, 25, 21, 57, 10, 20, 29, 42, 7, 81, 19, 70, 31, 25, 65, 79, 9, 32, 73, 96, 7, 86, 14, 62, 93, 42, 34, ...}
A073101 Number of solutions (x,y,z) to 4/n = 1/x + 1/y + 1/z satisfying 0 < x < y < z, n >= 2. (Unit fractions must be distinct.)
- {0, 1, 1, 2, 5, 5, 6, 4, 9, 7, 15, 4, 14, 33, 22, 4, 21, 9, 30, 25, 22, 19, 45, 10, 17, 25, 36, 7, 72, 17, 62, 27, 22, 59, 69, 9, 29, 67, 84, 7, 77, 12, 56, 87, 39, 32, 142, ...}
A?????? Number of distinct solutions (x,y,z) to 4/n = 1/x + 1/y + 1/z satisfying 0 < x < y < z, n >= 2. (Unit fractions must be distinct.)
- {0, 1, ...}
Solutions (a, b, c) of 4/p = 1/a + 1/b + 1/c
# | ||
---|---|---|
4 / 2 | (1, 2, 2) | 1 |
4 / 3 | (1, 4, 12), (1, 6, 6), (2, 2, 3) | 3 |
4 / 5 | (2, 4, 20), (2, 5, 10) | 2 |
4 / 7 | (2, 15, 210), (2, 16, 112), (2, 18, 63), (2, 21, 42), (2, 28, 28), (3, 6, 14), (4, 4, 14) | 7 |
4 / 11 | (3, 34, 1122), (3, 36, 396), (3, 42, 154), (3, 44, 132), (3, 66, 66), (4, 9, 396), (4, 11, 44), (4, 12, 33), (6, 6, 33) | 9 |
4 / 13 | (4, 18, 468), (4, 20, 130), (4, 26, 52), (5, 10, 130) | 4 |
4 / 17 | (5, 30, 510), (5, 34, 170), (6, 15, 510), (6, 17, 102) | 4 |
4 / 19 | (5, 96, 9120), (5, 100, 1900), (5, 114, 570), (5, 120, 456), (5, 190, 190), (6, 23, 2622), (6, 24, 456), (6, 30, 95), (6, 38, 57), (8, 12, 456), (10, 10, 95) | 11 |
4 / 23 | (6, 139, 19182), (6, 140, 9600), (6, 141, 6486), (6, 142, 4899), (6, 144, 3312), (6, 147, 2254), (6, 150, 1725), (6, 156, 1196), (6, 161, 966), (6, 174, 667), (6, 184, 552), (6, 207, 414), (6, 230, 345), (6, 276, 276), (7, 42, 138), (8, 23, 184), (8, 24, 138), (9, 16, 3312), (9, 18, 138), (10, 15, 138), (12, 12, 138) | 21 |
4 / 29 | (8, 78, 9048), (8, 80, 2320), (8, 87, 696), (8, 88, 638), (8, 116, 232), (10, 29, 290), (11, 22, 638) | 7 |
Number of solutions (a, b, c) of 4/p = 1/a + 1/b + 1/c
In 2012, Christian Elsholtz & Terence Tao established that
where is a prime and is the number of solutions to the Erdős–Straus Diophantine equation.
A192788 Number of solutions of 4/p = 1/a + 1/b + 1/c in positive integers, where p is the n-th prime. (Unit fractions may be repeated.)
- {3, 12, 12, 36, 48, 24, 24, 66, 132, 42, 114, 60, 48, 84, 216, 90, 168, 72, 108, 246, 42, 228, 162, 66, 48, 102, 156, 150, 96, 84, 198, 192, 108, 222, 114, 192, 144, 144, ...}
A192789 Number of distinct solutions of 4/p = 1/a + 1/b + 1/c in positive integers, where p is the n-th prime. (Unit fractions may be repeated.)
- {1, 3, 2, 7, 9, 4, 4, 12, 23, 7, 20, 10, 8, 15, 37, 15, 29, 12, 19, 42, 7, 39, 28, 11, 8, 17, 27, 26, 16, 14, 34, 33, 18, 38, 19, 33, 24, 25, 68, 27, 52, 18, 69, 6, 25, 43, 32, ...}
A?????? Number of solutions (x,y,z) to 4/p = 1/x + 1/y + 1/z satisfying 0 < x < y < z, where p is the n-th prime. (Unit fractions must be distinct.)
- {0, 1, 2, 5, 7, 4, 4, 9, 19, 7, 17, 9, 12, 32, ...}
A?????? Number of distinct solutions (x,y,z) to 4/p = 1/x + 1/y + 1/z satisfying 0 < x < y < z, where p is the n-th prime. (Unit fractions must be distinct.)
- {0, 1, ...}
Notes
- ↑ A more constrained variant of the conjecture, where the unit fractions must be distinct, is
- ↑ https://arxiv.org/abs/1406.6307
- ↑ Equivalent conjecture: any nonunit positive integer, i.e. greater than 1, is times the harmonic mean of three (distinct or not) positive unit fractions
- ↑ Equivalent conjecture: any prime is times the harmonic mean of three (distinct or not) positive unit fractions
External links
- Christian Elsholtz & Terence Tao, "Counting the number of solutions to the Erdos-Straus equation on unit fractions," arXiv:1107.1010.
- Weisstein, Eric W., Harmonic Mean, from MathWorld—A Wolfram Web Resource.