Published online by Cambridge University Press: 24 April 2012
In this note we study the existence of primes and of primitive divisors in function field analogues of classical divisibility sequences. Under various hypotheses, we prove that Lucas sequences and elliptic divisibility sequences over function fields defined over number fields contain infinitely many irreducible elements. We also prove that an elliptic divisibility sequence over a function field has only finitely many terms lacking a primitive divisor.
Ingram’s research was supported by a grant from NSERC of Canada. Mahé’s research was supported by the Université de Franche-Comté. Silverman’s research was supported by DMS-0854755. Stange’s research was supported by NSERC PDF-373333 and NSF MSPRF 0802915. Streng’s research was supported by EPSRC grant no. EP/G004870/1.