Asymptotic Improvements of Lower Bounds for the Least Common Multiples of Arithmetic Progressions

Daniel M. Kane, Scott D. Kominers

Published 2010-12-30, updated 2014-07-01Version 2

For relatively prime positive integers $u_0$ and $r$, we consider the least common multiple $L_n:=\mathrm{lcm}(u_0,u_1,\ldots, u_n)$ of the finite arithmetic progression $\{u_k:=u_0+kr\}_{k=0}^n$. We derive new lower bounds on $L_n$ which improve upon those obtained previously when either $u_0$ or $n$ is large. When $r$ is prime, our best bound is sharp up to a factor of $n+1$ for $u_0$ properly chosen, and is also nearly sharp as $n\to\infty$.