The Arithmetic Partial Derivative

Abstract

The arithmetic partial derivative (with respect to a prime $p$) is a function from the set of integers that sends $p$ to 1 and satisfies the Leibniz rule. In this paper, we prove that the $p$-adic valuation of the sequence of higher order partial derivatives is eventually periodic. We also prove a criterion to determine when an integer has integral anti-partial derivatives. As an application, we show that there are infinitely many integers with exactly $n$ integral anti-partial derivatives for any nonnegative integer $n$.