Thursday, 20 June 2013

elementary number theory - Totient function inequality



I am not quite sure how to approach this problem:




If a and n are such natural numbers that a divides n, then n-ϕ(n)\ge a-ϕ(a)



This is my thought process so far: Obviously the fact that n=n*a should be used. If n is prime, then n-ϕ(n)=a-ϕ(a)=1 because only n and 1 could then possibly be a. If n is not prime, but a is, then n-ϕ(n)>1 and a-ϕ(a)=1 so n-ϕ(n)>a-ϕ(a)=1. Yet I am not sure what happens if both a and n are not prime.



Any help is appreciated. Thank you.


Answer



The number \varphi(m) counts the numbers from 1 to m that are relatively prime to m. It follows that m-\varphi(m) counts the numbers from 1 to m that are not relatively prime to m.



Let n=ka. If 1\le x\le a, and x is not relatively prime to a, then x is a number between 1 and n that is not relatively prime to n. The result follows.



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