Research notes on every problem, and a library of the papers behind them. Built from the open erdos repository.
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Source. The unnumbered observation near the top of printed page 200 (PDF page 4) of Erdős (1974). The paper calls this easy to see without supplying the construction. The following is a complete reconstruction relative to the named classical theorems.
Use the definition of in remark_p199.
Statement. For every real there is an odd integer such that . In fact, for each fixed integer , there are infinitely many such odd with .
Complete proof. Fix , and put
Dirichlet's theorem supplies infinitely many primes . Choose any of these with and . Then , so the supplementary law for the Legendre symbol gives . For each odd prime , quadratic reciprocity and give
because is odd. Multiplicativity now implies for every integer : every prime factor of such an was included above and .
Set . This is an odd integer at least . Euler's criterion gives for every . Their collective gcd therefore has the prime divisor , so . The infinitely many choices of give infinitely many distinct , proving the assertion.
A separate numerical correction. The same source paragraph prints as an example with . The example is incorrect:
and the exact identity
proves . The source's intended qualitative point, that can greatly exceed , nevertheless follows from the theorem above: for every odd , , since is even for every odd prime .
Dependencies. Dirichlet's theorem for a reduced residue class modulo a fixed positive integer; quadratic reciprocity and its supplementary laws; multiplicativity of the Legendre symbol; and Euler's criterion. Their proofs are external. remark_p199 establishes that the threshold is finite.
Bears on. #770. Unboundedness along odd exponents does not assert that tends to infinity or resolve the question of infinitely many values equal to three.