Communications in Mathematics

Florian Luca
On a problem of Bednarek

Communications in Mathematics, Vol. 20 (2012), No. 2, 79--80

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 VOLUME
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No. 2
ISSN 1804-1388

C O M M U N I C AT I O N S
I N M AT H E M AT I C S

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Olga Rossi, The University of Ostrava & La Trobe University, Melbourne

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Ilka Agricola, Philipps-Universität Marburg
Attila Bérczes, University of Debrecen
Anthony Bloch, University of Michigan
George Bluman, The University of British Columbia, Vancouver
Yong-Xin Guo, Eastern Liaoning University, Dandong
Haizhong Li, Tsinghua University, Beijing
Vilém Novák, The University of Ostrava
Štefan Porubský, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Prague
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Communications in Mathematics 20 (2012) 79–80
Copyright c 2012 The University of Ostrava 79

On a problem of Bednarek

Florian Luca

Abstract. We answer a question of Bednarek proposed at the 9th Polish,

Slovak and Czech conference in Number Theory.

There are several problems in the literature concerning various arithmetic proper-
ties of the digit sum number function, see e.g. [1] and the references given there. In
this paper, we deal with a particular problem. Namely, at the 9th Polish, Slovak
and Czech Conference on Number Theory, June 11–14, 2012, W. Bednarek (via
A. Schinzel) asked the following question.
Question Is there a positive integer n divisible by 11 . . . 1} whose digit sum is less
| {z
than k? k times
Here, we prove that the answer is no in a slightly more general setting. For integers
N ≥ 1 and b ≥ 2, let N = dm dm−1 . . . d0 (b) be the base b representation of N , where
d0 , . . . , dm ∈ {0, 1, . . . , b − 1} with dm 6= 0. We have the following result.
Theorem If n ≥ 2 is a multiple of |11 {z
. . . 1}(b) , then the sum of its base b digits is
greater than or equal to k. k times

Proof. We may assume that k ≥ 2, otherwise there is nothing to prove. Write

m
X
n= di bi ,
i=0

where d0 , . . . , dm are in {0, 1, . . . , b − 1} with dm 6= 0. We may also assume that

d0 6= 0. Put N = (bk − 1)/(b − 1). Then bk ≡ 1 (mod N ). Thus,
k−1
X
n≡ cj bj (mod N ) ,
j=0
where
X
cj = di .
0≤i≤m
i≡j (mod k)

2010 MSC: 11A63

Key words: sum of digits
80 Florian Luca

It is clear that c0 + · · · + ck−1 is the sum of the digits of n.

For each ` ∈ {0, 1, . . . , k − 1}, put
 
j+`
rj,` = j + ` − k ,
k
and consider the integer
k−1
X
m` = cj brj,` .
j=0

Note that since bk ≡ 1 (mod N ), it follows that

k−1
X
m` ≡ bj+` cj (mod N ) ≡ b` n (mod N ) ≡ 0 (mod N ) ,
j=0

and since cj > 0 for some j, we get that m` ≥ N . Summing this up for all
` ∈ {0, 1, . . . , k − 1}, we get
k−1
X k−1
X k−1
X k−1
X k−1
X
kN ≤ brj,` cj = cj brj,` = N cj ,
`=0 j=0 j=0 `=0 j=0
Pk−1
so j=0 cj ≥ k, which is what we wanted to prove. 

Note After this paper was submitted, we learned that Bednarek’s question was
also asked by Zhi–Wei Sun in [3], who solved the particular case when the modulus
b is a prime. We also learned that the main result of this paper was obtained
independently by Pan in [2].
Acknowledgements I thank the referee for comments which improved the quality
of this note and Professor A. Schinzel for advice. This work was supported in part
by Project PAPIIT 104512 and a Marcos Moshinsky fellowship.

References
[1] F. Luca: Arithmetic properties of positive integers with a fixed digit sum. Revista
Matematica Iberoamericana 22 (2006) 369–412.
[2] H. Pan: On the m-ary expansion of a multiple of (mk − 1)/(m − 1). Publ. Math.
Debrecen, to appear.
[3] Z.-W. Sun: On divisibility concerning binomial coefficients. J. Austral. Math. Soc., in
press, arXiv:1005.1054.

Author’s address:
Florian Luca: Centro de Ciencias de Matemáticas, Universidad Nacional Autonoma de
México, C.P. 58089, Morelia, Michoacán, México
E-mail: fluca a matmor.unam.mx

Received: 15 June, 2012

Accepted for publication: 24 August, 2012
Communicated by: Attila Bérczes