Let P denote the set of prime numbers, and let P(n) denote the largest prime factor of an integer n> 1. We show that, for every real number 32/17 < η < (4 + 3 √ 2)/4, there exists a constant c(η)> 1 such that for every integer a � = 0, the set � p ∈ P: p = P(q − a) for some prime q with p η < q < c(η) p η � has relative asymptotic density one in the set of all prime numbers. Moreover, in the range 2 ≤ η < (4+3 √ 2)/4, one can take c(η) = 1+ε for any fixed ε> 0. In particular, our results imply that for every real number 0.486 ≤ ϑ ≤ 0.531, the relation P(q − a) ≍ q ϑ holds for infinitely many primes q. We use this result to derive a lower bound on the number of distinct prime divisors of the value of the Carmichael function taken on a product of shifted primes. Finally, we study iterates of the map q ↦ → P(q − a) for a> 0, and show that for infinitely many primes q, this map can be iterated at least (log log q) 1+o(1) times before it terminates. 1.

Abstract. In 1876, E. Lucas showed that a quick proof of primality for a prime p could be attained through the prime factorization of p − 1 and a primitive root for p. V. Pratt’s proof that PRIMES is in NP, done via Lucas’s theorem, showed that a certificate of primality for a prime p could be obtained in O(log 2 p) modular multiplications with integers at most p. We show that for all constants C ∈ R, the number of modular multiplications necessary to obtain this certificate is greater than C log p for a set of primes p with relative asymptotic density 1. 1.

ABSTRACT. We show that the equation φ(a) = σ(b) has infinitely many solutions, where φ is Euler’s totient function and σ is the sum-of-divisors function. This proves a 50-year old conjecture of Erdős. Moreover, we show that there are infinitely many integers n such that φ(a) = n and σ(b) = n each have more than n c solutions, for some c> 0. The proofs rely on the recent work of the first two authors and Konyagin on the distribution of primes p for which a given prime divides some iterate of φ at p, and on a result of Heath-Brown connecting the possible existence of Siegel zeros with the distribution of twin primes. 1.

ABSTRACT. We study the distribution of prime chains, which are sequences p1,..., pk of primes for which pj+1 ≡ 1 (mod pj) for each j. We first give conditional upper bounds on the length of Cunningham chains, chains with pj+1 = 2pj +1 for each j. We give estimates for P (x), the number of chains with pk � x (k variable), and P (x; p), the number of chains with p1 = p and pk � px. The majority of the paper concerns the distribution of H(p), the length of the longest chain with pk = p, which is also the height of the Pratt tree for p. We show H(p) � c log log p and H(p) � (log p) 1−c′ for almost all p, with c, c ′ explicit positive constants. We can take, for any ε> 0, c = e − ε assuming the Elliott-Halberstam conjecture. A stochastic model of the Pratt tree is introduced and analyzed. The model suggests that for most p � x, H(p) stays very close to e log log x. 1.

In this paper, we study the positive integers n having at least two distinct prime factors such that the sum of the prime factors of n divides 2 n−1 − 1. 1