It is a well known result that for every n∈N, xn+1≡yn(modp) is non-trivially solvable for sufficiently large primes p. Let Pn denote the largest prime for which it is unsolvable. Ramsey theory gives (I think the proof was first given by Schur, if I'm not mistaking) $$P_n
R(3,…,3⏟n3's)⩽
for n\geq2 and R(3,3,3)=17, the best explicit bound I can get from this is P_n<\frac{17}6\cdot n!.
A heuristic approach goes as follows: there are at least \frac{p-1}n nonzero nth powers modulo primes p. The 'probability' that none of these yields a solution to the congruence is thus at most \left(1-\frac{\frac{p-1}n}p\right)^{\frac{p-1}n}, if we assume the nth powers to be distributed uniformly. If we want to bound this from above by a fixed \epsilon>0, we have
\begin{align*}\left(1-\frac{\frac{p-1}n}p\right)^{\frac{p-1}n}&\leq\epsilon\\ \frac{p-1}n\log\left(1-\frac1n\right)\approx\frac{p-1}n\log\left(1-\frac{p-1}{np}\right)&\leq\log\epsilon\\ p-1&\lessapprox\frac{n\log\epsilon}{\log\left(1-\frac1n\right)}=n^2\log\epsilon+O(n).\end{align*}
I'm not sure if these calculations make any sense at all, but from this I would conjecture that P_n=O(n^2).
Finally, my question:
Is it known that P_n=O(n^2)? If not, what is the best known bound, or what do heuristics tell us?
Answer
From the Hasse Weil Bound, it follows that the number of solutions N_p to x^n + y^n = z^n in \mathbb{F}_p
satisfies |N_p - (p + 1)|\le 2g\sqrt{p}
where g is the genus. By the genus degree formula, g\le\frac{(n - 1)(n - 2)}{2}
Therefore, for all p> \left((n - 1)(n - 2)\right)^2, N_p>0. This doesn't give your bound of O(n^2) and instead gives O(n^4)
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