A note on numerators of Bernoulli numbers

Abstract

The object of this short note is to give some observations on Bernoulli numbers and their function field analogs and point out ‘known’ counter-examples to a conjecture of Chowla. Bernoulli numbers Bn defined (for integer n > 1) by z/(e z − 1) = ∑ Bnz /n!, and their important cousins Bn/n, play interesting roles in many areas of mathematics. (Below we only restrict to these for n even, precisely the case when they are non-zero.) We mention some key words by which the reader can search: Power sums, Zeta special values, Eisenstein series, measures, p-adic L-functions, finite differences, combinatorics, Euler-Maclaurin formula, Todd classes in topology, Grothendieck-Hirzebruch-Riemann-Roch formula, K-theory of integers, Stable homotopy, Bhargava factorial associated to the set of primes, Kummer-HerbrandRibet theorems in cyclotomic theory, Kervaire-Milnor formula for diffeomorphism classes of exotic spheres. Their factorization is of interest, the denominators (which show up explicitly in the third-fourth items from the end) are well understood via theorems of von-Staudt, but the numerators (which show up explicitly in the last two items above) are mysterious and connected to many interesting phenomena. In one of the rare lapses, Ramanujan, in his very first paper [R1911, (14), (18) and Sec. 12], claimed to have proved (editors downgrade it to a conjecture) that the numerator Nn of Bn/n is always a prime, when it was already known since Kummer (in Fermat’s last theorem connection) that ‘irregular’ prime 37 is a proper divisor of N32, and even N20 is composite. In [C1930], Chowla showed that Ramanujan’s claim had infinity of counter-examples. Note that this also follows from one counterexample and the Kummer congruences (recalled below) for that prime! Interestingly, in his last paper [CC1986], Chowla (jointly with his daughter) asks as unsolved problem whether the numerator is always square-free. (This is also mentioned in the nice survey article by Murtys and Williams on Chowla’s work in Vol. 1 of [C1999], where the author learned about it.) Theorem 1. Chowla’s conjecture stated above has infinity of counter-examples. In fact, for any given irregular prime p less than 163 million, and given arbitrarily large k, there is n such that p divides Nn. Proof. Using the tables (or the reader can try to check directly!) giving factorizations of Bn/n, for example the table by Wagstaff at the Bernoulli web page www.bernoulli.org, we see that 37 divides N284. Now recall the well-known Kummer congruences that the value of (1 − p)Bn/n modulo p depends only on (even) n modulo pk−1(p − 1), for n not divisible by p − 1. The first claim follows by taking p = 37. Supported in part by NSA grant H98230-10-1-0200.