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Number Theory Commons

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Articles 1 - 9 of 9

Full-Text Articles in Number Theory

Incremental Increases Between Successive Integers When Raised To The Nth Power, Sutton J. Olesen Sep 2025

Incremental Increases Between Successive Integers When Raised To The Nth Power, Sutton J. Olesen

Rose-Hulman Undergraduate Mathematics Journal

For thousands of years, the beautiful field of number theory has captivated mathematicians with its elegant simplicity. Positive integers continue to reveal properties and relationships that are a joy to uncover, and in this paper, we investigate a pattern involving exponents and factorials while exploring some common notations in the field of number theory. Combinatorics, the field dealing with the mathematics of counting and arranging, also holds a presence in this paper. Pascal’s Triangle–the foundation of binomial expressions, also comes into play due to its tight relationship with combinatorics. Pascal’s Identity, the property that builds the triangle, becomes very useful …


The Combinatorics Of Integer Partitions Enumerated By Some Exotic Weights, Hunter Waldron Jan 2025

The Combinatorics Of Integer Partitions Enumerated By Some Exotic Weights, Hunter Waldron

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

Identities of integer partitions generally state that two dissimilar appearing families of partitions are in fact equinumerous when both are restricted to any fixed size. Euler's theorem is a classic example of such an identity, which equates the number of partitions with odd parts to the number of partitions with distinct parts. Lately, analogs of known partition identities involving weights other than size have begun to attract research interest. This dissertation is an investigation of two such weights. In Chapter 2, we study Schmidt weights, which count only parts with indices belonging to some given subset of the positive integers. …


Optimizing Buying Strategies In Dominion, Nikolas A. Koutroulakis Feb 2024

Optimizing Buying Strategies In Dominion, Nikolas A. Koutroulakis

Rose-Hulman Undergraduate Mathematics Journal

Dominion is a deck-building card game that simulates competing lords growing their kingdoms. Here we wish to optimize a strategy called Big Money by modeling the game as a Markov chain and utilizing the associated transition matrices to simulate the game. We provide additional analysis of a variation on this strategy known as Big Money Terminal Draw. Our results show that player's should prioritize buying provinces over improving their deck. Furthermore, we derive heuristics to guide a player's decision making for a Big Money Terminal Draw Deck. In particular, we show that buying a second Smithy is always more optimal …


Mathematical Magic: A Study Of Number Puzzles, Nicasio M. Velez Jan 2021

Mathematical Magic: A Study Of Number Puzzles, Nicasio M. Velez

Rose-Hulman Undergraduate Mathematics Journal

Within this paper, we will briefly review the history of a collection of number puzzles which take the shape of squares, polygons, and polyhedra in both modular and nonmodular arithmetic. Among other results, we develop construction techniques for solutions of both Modulo and regular Magic Squares. For other polygons in nonmodular arithmetic, specifically of order 3, we present a proof of why there are only four Magic Triangles using linear algebra, disprove the existence of the Magic Tetrahedron in two ways, and utilizing the infamous 3-SUM combinatorics problem we disprove the existence of the Magic Octahedron.


The Name Tag Problem, Christian Carley Nov 2020

The Name Tag Problem, Christian Carley

Rose-Hulman Undergraduate Mathematics Journal

The Name Tag Problem is a thought experiment that, when formalized, serves as an introduction to the concept of an orthomorphism of $\Zn$. Orthomorphisms are a type of group permutation and their graphs are used to construct mutually orthogonal Latin squares, affine planes and other objects. This paper walks through the formalization of the Name Tag Problem and its linear solutions, which center around modular arithmetic. The characterization of which linear mappings give rise to these solutions developed in this paper can be used to calculate the exact number of linear orthomorphisms for any additive group Z/nZ, which is demonstrated …


On The Density Of The Odd Values Of The Partition Function, Samuel Judge Jan 2018

On The Density Of The Odd Values Of The Partition Function, Samuel Judge

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

The purpose of this dissertation is to introduce a new approach to the study of one of the most basic and seemingly intractable problems in partition theory, namely the conjecture that the partition function $p(n)$ is equidistributed modulo $2$. We provide a doubly-indexed, infinite family of conjectural identities in the ring of series $\Z_2[[q]]$, which relate $p(n)$ with suitable $t$-multipartition functions, and show how to, in principle, prove each such identity. We will exhibit explicit proofs for $32$ of our identities. However, the conjecture remains open in full generality. A striking consequence of these conjectural identities is that, under suitable …


From Simplest Recursion To The Recursion Of Generalizations Of Cross Polytope Numbers, Yutong Yang May 2017

From Simplest Recursion To The Recursion Of Generalizations Of Cross Polytope Numbers, Yutong Yang

KSU Journey Honors College Capstones and Theses

My research project involves investigations in the mathematical field of combinatorics. The research study will be based on the results of Professors Steven Edwards and William Griffiths, who recently found a new formula for the cross-polytope numbers. My topic will be focused on "Generalizations of cross-polytope numbers". It will include the proofs of the combinatorics results in Dr. Edwards and Dr. Griffiths' recently published paper. $E(n,m)$ and $O(n,m)$, the even terms and odd terms for Dr. Edward's original combinatorial expression, are two distinct combinatorial expressions that are in fact equal. But there is no obvious algebraic evidence to show that …


The Combinatorialization Of Linear Recurrences, Arthur T. Benjamin, Halcyon Derks, Jennifer J. Quinn Jun 2011

The Combinatorialization Of Linear Recurrences, Arthur T. Benjamin, Halcyon Derks, Jennifer J. Quinn

All HMC Faculty Publications and Research

We provide two combinatorial proofs that linear recurrences with constant coefficients have a closed form based on the roots of its characteristic equation. The proofs employ sign-reversing involutions on weighted tilings.


Self-Avoiding Walks And Fibonacci Numbers, Arthur T. Benjamin Nov 2006

Self-Avoiding Walks And Fibonacci Numbers, Arthur T. Benjamin

All HMC Faculty Publications and Research

By combinatorial arguments, we prove that the number of self-avoiding walks on the strip {0, 1} × Z is 8Fn − 4 when n is odd and is 8Fn − n when n is even. Also, when backwards moves are prohibited, we derive simple expressions for the number of length n self-avoiding walks on {0, 1} × Z, Z × Z, the triangular lattice, and the cubic lattice.