Published online by Cambridge University Press: 20 November 2018
In two previous papers [1, 2] we investigated the zeros of certain arithmetic functions. Using units of cubic fields, we also succeeded to construct, almost by accident, and as a by-product so to speak, entirely new and comparatively complicated combinatorial identities. In an interesting paper combinatorialist L. Carlitz [10] proved those identities in an elementary way. In a/m, we had to prove that the units used were fundamental ones.
Encouraged by these results, we took a closer look at this method that had led to the construction of combinatorial identities. Since the latter are such an important tool in mathematics, we thought it would be “einer Messe wert“ to generalize these results and lay the theoretical foundations of a new method for the construction of highly sophisticated combinatorial identities.