We show that the limiting distribution of the number of comparisons used by Hoare's quickselect algorithm when given a random permutation of n elements for finding the m-th smallest element, where m = o(n), is the Dickman function. The limiting distribution of the number of exchanges is also derived. 1 Quickselect Quickselect is one of the simplest and e#cient algorithms in practice for finding specified order statistics in a given sequence. It was invented by Hoare [19] and uses the usual partitioning procedure of quicksort: choose first a partitioning key, say x; regroup the given sequence into two parts corresponding to elements whose values are less than and larger than x, respectively; then decide, according to the size of the smaller subgroup, which part to continue recursively or to stop if x is the desired order statistics; see Figure 1 for an illustration in terms of binary search trees. For more details, see Guibas [15] and Mahmoud [26]. This algorithm , although ine#cient in the worst case, has linear mean when given a sequence of n independent and identically distributed continuous random variables, or equivalently, when given a random permutation of n elements, where, here and throughout this paper, all n! permutations are equally likely. Let C n,m denote the number of comparisons used by quickselect for finding the m-th smallest element in a random permutation, where the first partitioning stage uses n 1 comparisons. Knuth [23] was the first to show, by some di#erencing argument, that E(C n,m ) = 2 (n + 3 + (n + 1)H n (m + 2)Hm (n + 3 -m)H n+1-m ) , n, where Hm = 1#k#m k -1 . A more transparent asymptotic approximation is E(C n,m ) (#), (#) := 2 #), # Part of the work of this author was done while he was visiting School of C...

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. This paper is a survey of recent advances in discrete logarithm algorithms. Improved estimates for smooth integers and smooth polynomials are also discussed. 1. Introduction If G denotes a group (written multiplicatively), and hgi the cyclic subgroup generated by g 2 G, then the discrete logarithm problem for G is to find, given g 2 G and y 2 hgi, the smallest nonnegative integer x such that y = g x . This integer x is called the discrete logarithm of y to the base g, and is written x = log g y. The discrete log problem has been studied by number theorists for a long time. The main reason for the intense current interest in it, though, is that many public key cryptosystems depend for their security on the assumption that it is hard, at least for suitably chosen groups. With the proposed adoption of the NIST digital signature algorithm [28] (based on the ElGamal [10] and Schnorr [35] proposals), even more attention is likely to be drawn to this area. There are already several su...

A central problem in analytic number theory is to gain an understanding of character sums χ(n), n≤x

An old question of Erdős asks if there exists, for each number N, a finite set S of integers greater than N and residue classes r(n) (mod n) for n ∈ S whose union is Z. We prove that if � n∈S 1/n is bounded for such a covering of the integers, then the least member of S is also bounded, thus confirming a conjecture of Erdős and Selfridge. We also prove a conjecture of Erdős and Graham, that, for each fixed number K> 1, the complement in Z of any union of residue classes r(n) (mod n), for distinct n ∈ (N, KN], has density at least dK for N sufficiently large. Here dK is a positive number depending only on K. Either of these new results implies another conjecture of Erdős and Graham, that if S is a finite set of moduli greater than N, with a choice for residue classes r(n) (mod n) for n ∈ S which covers Z, then the largest member of S cannot be O(N). We further obtain stronger forms of these results and establish other information, including an improvement of a related theorem of Haight. 1

An old conjecture of Sierpiński asserts that for every integer k � 2, there is a number m for which the equation φ(x) = m has exactly k solutions. Here φ is Euler’s totient function. In 1961, Schinzel deduced this conjecture from his Hypothesis H. The purpose of this paper is to present an unconditional proof of Sierpiński’s conjecture. The proof uses many results from sieve theory, in particular the famous theorem of Chen.

Integers without large prime factors, dubbed smooth numbers, are by now firmly established as a useful and versatile tool in number theory. More than being simply a property of numbers that is conceptually dual to primality, smoothness has played a major role in the proofs of many results, from multiplicative questions to Waring’s problem to complexity

Dedicated to Andrzej Schinzel on his sixtieth birthday By a totient we mean a value taken by Euler’s function φ(n). Dence and Pomerance [DP] have established Theorem A. If a residue class contains at least one multiple of 4, then it contains

Abstract. We consider the largest degrees that occur in the decomposi-tion of polynomials over finite fields into irreducible factors. We expand the range of applicability of the Dickman function as an approximation for the number of smooth polynomials, which provides precise estimates for the discrete logarithm problem. In addition, we characterize the dis-tribution of the two largest degrees of irreducible factors, a problem relevant to polynomial factorization. As opposed to most earlier treat-ments, our methods are based on a combination of exact descriptions by generating functions and a specific complex asymptotic method. 1

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.