Number Theory – Prove Only Finitely Many n Satisfy Totient Function Equals m

elementary-number-theoryprime factorizationprime numberstotient-function

Let $\phi(n)$ be Euler's totient function.

How do I show that there are only finitely many such $n$ with $\phi(n) = m$, for each positive integer $m$?

I've written $n$ as a product of primes; $n = p_1^{c_1} \cdots p_k^{c_k}$, and then $\phi(n) = p_1^{c_1 – 1}(p_1 -1) \cdots p_k^{c_k – 1}(p_k – 1)$, I feel like this should help me but I can't seem to see why!

Also, out of interest, is it possible to represent every single integer $m$ in terms of the Euler totient function $\phi(n)$?

Best Answer

First, note that for any $r$ there at most two numbers $s$ satisfying

  • $s$ is a prime power and
  • $\phi(s)=r$.

This is because the only possible options are $r+1$ or $\frac{pr}{p-1}$ where $p$ is the largest prime dividing $r$.

Second, we can write $n=s_1s_2\cdots s_k$ where each $s_i$ is a power of a different prime. Then if $\phi(s_i)=r_i$ for each $i$, we have $\phi(n)=r_1r_2\cdots r_k$ and we have at most one $i$ with $r_i=1$ (since this only occurs if $s_i=2$). There are only finitely many ways to write $m$ as a product of some positive integers $r_i$ with at most one $r_i=1$, and for each such product there are finitely many ways to reconstruct the $s_i$.

For the second question, numbers which don't appear as the totient function of other numbers are called "nontotients" - see the wikipedia article on them for more details.

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