This notion was first offered by Asger Aaboe, mathematics professor at Yale, in 1972. Number theory was his area of special expertise, and you WOULD NOT BELIEVE the quantity and vitriol of the criticism he received for thinking of it. Subsequently, he only published an abbreviated version of his paper on the subject, then went off to other topics.
Sad, really. Glad somebody has confirmed his idea, though.
Surprising this was not found sooner.
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It’s such a simple assumption, but you know what they say about assuming.