Conjectures about Primes and Cyclic Numbers
Joel E. Cohen
The Rockefeller University
1230 York Avenue, Box 20
New York, NY 10065
USA
Abstract:
A positive integer n is defined to be cyclic if and only if every group of size n is cyclic.
Equivalently, n is cyclic if and only if n is relatively prime to the number of positive
integers less than n that are relatively prime to n. Because every prime number is
cyclic, it is natural to ask whether a (proved or conjectured) property of primes extends
to cyclic numbers. I review proved or conjectured properties of primes (including
some new conjectures about primes) and propose analogous conjectures about cyclic
numbers. Using the 28,488,167 cyclic numbers less than 108, I test the conjectures
about cyclic numbers and disprove the cyclic analog of the second conjecture about
primes of Hardy and Littlewood. Proofs or disproofs of the remaining conjectures are
invited.
Full version: pdf,
ps,
latex
(Concerned with sequences
A000010
A000040
A000720
A002496
A003277
A014085
A050216
A050384
A061091
A349997.)
Received January 5 2025; revised versions received May 22 2025; June 12 2025.
Published in Journal of Integer Sequences,
August 7 2025.
Return to
Journal of Integer Sequences home page