Random multiplicative walks on the residues modulo n

Abstract

We introduce a new arithmetic function $a(n)$ defined to be the number of random multiplications by residues modulo $n$ before the running product is congruent to 0 modulo $n$. We give several formulas for computing the values of this function and analyze its asymptotic behavior. We find that it is closely related to $P_1(n)$, the largest prime divisor of $n$. In particular, $a(n)$ and $P_1(n)$ have the same average order asymptotically. Furthermore, the difference between the functions $a(n)$ and $P_1(n)$ is $o(1)$ as $n$ tends to infinity on a set with density approximately $0.623$. On the other hand however, we see that (except on a set of density zero) the difference between $a(n)$ and $P_1(n)$ tends to infinity on the integers outside this set. Finally we consider the asymptotic behaviour of the difference between these two functions and find that $\sum_{n\leq x}\big( a(n)-P_1(n)\big) \sim \left(1-\frac{\pi}{4}\right)\sum_{n\leq x} P_2(n)$, where $P_2(n)$ is the second largest divisor of $n$.