Ratio between largest and smallest prime factor

carmichael-numberselementary-number-theoryprime factorizationrecreational-mathematics

For a Carmichael-number $N$ let $p$ be the smallest and $q$ the largest prime factor. Consider $r:=\frac{q}{p}$. We could call a Carmichael "balanced" , if $r\approx 1$ , say $r<1.1$.

Can $r$ be arbitary close to $1$ ?

In the Carmichael numbers upto $10^{16}$ , the number with the smallest ratio is $$33432760972801= 30241\cdot 32257\cdot 34273$$ $r\approx 1.13$

Best Answer

Conjecturally (on the Hardy–Littlewood prime 3-tuples conjecture) the answer is yes.

The following is shown in Chapter 14 of O. Ore's Number Theory and Its History and is not too hard to verify by hand: Given any three positive, pairwise relatively prime integers $a<b<c$, let $m$ be the solution to the congruence $m(ab+bc+ca)+a+b+c\equiv0\pmod{abc}$. Then for any integer $n \equiv m\pmod{abc}$, if each of $an+1$, $bn+1$, and $cn+1$ is prime, then $(an+1)(bn+1)(cn+1)$ is a Carmichael number.

Conjecturally that simultaneous primality should happen infinitely often; and in this family the ratio of the largest to smallest prime factor approaches $c/a$ as $n\to\infty$, which can be chosen arbitrarily close to $1$ (by choosing $(a,b,c)=(2d-1,2d,2d+1)$ for example).