Let $N$ be an odd perfect number and let $a$ be its third largest prime divisor, $b$ be the second largest prime divisor, and $c$ be its largest prime divisor. We discuss steps towards obtaining a non-trivial upper bound on $a$, as well as the closely related problem of improving bounds $bc$, and $abc$. In particular, we prove two results. First we prove a new general bound on any prime divisor of an odd perfect number and obtain as a corollary of that bound that $$a < 2N^{\frac{1}{6}}.$$ Second, we show that $$abc < (2N)^{\frac{3}{5}}.$$ We also show how in certain circumstances these bounds and related inequalities can be tightened. Define a $σ_{m,n}$ pair to be a pair primes $p$ and $q$ where $q|σ(p^m)$, and $p|σ(q^n)$. Many of our results revolve around understanding $σ_{2,2}$ pairs. We also prove results concerning $σ_{m,n}$ pairs for other values of $m$ and $n$.
In this paper, we consider certain finite sums related to the "largest odd divisor", and we obtain, using simple ideas and recurrence relations, sharp upper and lower bounds for these sums.
We give necessary conditions satisfied by the set of odd prime divisors of binary perfect polynomials. This allows us to get a new characterization of all the known perfect binary polynomials.
In 1982, Erdös and van Lint showed an estimate for the average of the ratio of the smallest and largest prime divisor of $n$. In this note, we apply C.H. Jia's method to give an estimate for the average of positive integer power of the ratio.
For a positive integer $n$, let $σ(n)$ denote the sum of the positive divisors of $n$. Let $d$ be a proper divisor of $n$. We call $n$ a deficient-perfect number if $σ(n)=2n-d$. In this paper, we show that the only odd deficient-perfect number with four distinct prime divisors is $3^{2}\cdot 7^{2}\cdot 11^{2}\cdot 13^{2}$.
In this paper, we consider a conjecture of Erdős and Rosenfeld when the number is a perfect square. In particular, we show that every perfect square $n$ can have at most five divisors between $\sqrt{n} - c \sqrt[4]{n}$ and $\sqrt{n} + c \sqrt[4]{n}$.
We consider the Dickman function $Ψ(x,y)$ in the limit when $\ln x/\ln y\to \infty $ and $\ln \ln x \ln y\to 0$. The asymptotic value is expressed in terms of the ratio of iterated loragithm of $x$ and $ln y$.
For an integer $m >1$, we denote by $P(m)$ the largest prime divisor of $m$. We prove that $\limsup_{n \rightarrow +\infty} P(n!+1)/n \geqslant 1+9\log 2>7.238$, which improves a result of Stewart. More generally, for any nonzero polynomial $f(X)$ with integer coefficients, we show that $\limsup_{n \rightarrow +\infty} P(n!+f(n))/n \geqslant 1+9\log2$. This improves a result of Luca and Shparlinski. These improvements come from an additional combinatoric idea to the works mentioned above.
We consider the distribution of the largest prime divisor of the integers in the interval $[2,x]$, and investigate in particular the mode of this distribution, the prime number(s) which show up most often in this list. In addition to giving an asymptotic formula for this mode as $x$ tends to infinity, we look at the set of those prime numbers which, for some value of $x$, occur most frequently as the largest prime divisor of the integers in the interval $[2,x]$. We find that many prime numbers never have this property. We compare the set of "popular primes," those primes which are at some poin…
The only (unitary) perfect polynomials over $\mathbb{F}_2$ that are products of $x$, $x+1$ and Mersenne primes are precisely the nine (resp. nine "classes") known ones. This follows from a new result about the factorization of $M^{2h+1} +1$, for a Mersenne prime $M$ and for a positive integer $h$. Other consequences of such a factorization are new results about odd perfect polynomials.
We investigate the implications of a curious biconditional involving divisors of odd perfect numbers, if Dris conjecture that $q^k < n$ holds, where $q^k n^2$ is an odd perfect number with Euler prime $q$. We then show that this biconditional holds unconditionally. Lastly, we prove that the inequality $q<n$ holds unconditionally.
If $N = {q^k}{n^2}$ is an odd perfect number, where $q$ is the Euler prime, then we show that $n < q$ is sufficient for Sorli's conjecture that $k = ν_{q}(N) = 1$ to hold. We also prove that $q^k < 2/3{n^2}$, and that $I(q^k) < I(n)$, where $I(x)$ is the abundancy index of $x$.
We address an arithmetic problem in the ring $\F_2[x]$ related to the fixed points of the sum of divisors function. We study some binary polynomials $A$ such that $σ(A)/A $ is still a binary polynomial. Technically, we prove that the only (unitary) perfect polynomials over $\F_2$ that are products of $x$, $x+1$ and of Mersenne primes are precisely the nine (resp. nine "classes") known ones. This follows from a new result about the factorization of $M^{2h+1} +1$, for a Mersenne prime $M$ and for a positive integer $h$.
The divisor function $σ(n)$ sums the divisors of $n$. We call $n$ abundant when $σ(n) - n > n$ and perfect when $σ(n) - n = n$. I recently introduced the recursive divisor function $a(n)$, the recursive analog of the divisor function. It measures the extent to which a number is highly divisible into parts, such that the parts are highly divisible into subparts, so on. Just as the divisor function motivates the abundant and perfect numbers, the recursive divisor function motivates their recursive analogs, which I introduce here. A number is recursively abundant, or ample, if $a(n) > n$ and recu…
The height of a polynomial $f(x)$ is the largest coefficient of $f(x)$ in absolute value. Let B(n) be the largest height of a polynomial in $\mathbb{Z}[x]$ dividing $x^n-1$. In this paper we investigate the maximal height of divisors of $x^{pq^b}-1$ and prove that some conjectures on the maximal height of divisors of $x^{pq^b}-1$ are true.
We call positive integer n a near-perfect number, if it is sum of all its proper divisors, except of one of them ("redundant divisor"). We prove an Euclid-like theorem for near-perfect numbers and obtain some other results for them.
Let $a\geq 1, b\geq 0$ and $k\geq 2$ be any given integers. It has been proven that there exist infinitely many natural numbers $m$ such that sum of divisors of $m$ is a perfect $k$th power. We try to generalize this result when the values of $m$ belong to any given infinite arithmetic progression $an+b$. We prove if $a$ is relatively prime to $b$ and order of $b$ modulo $a$ is relatively prime to $k$ then there exist infinitely many natural numbers $n$ such that sum of divisors of $an+b$ is a perfect $k$th power. We also prove that, in general, either sum of divisors of $an+b$ is not a perfec…
Let $n$ and $k$ be positive integers and $σ(n)$ the sum of all positive divisors of $n$. We call $n$ an exactly $k$-deficient-perfect number with deficient divisors $d_1, d_2, \ldots, d_k$ if $d_1, d_2, \ldots, d_k$ are distinct proper divisors of $n$ and $σ(n)=2n-(d_1+d_2+\ldots + d_k)$. In this article, we show that the only odd exactly $3$-deficient-perfect number with at most two distinct prime factors is $1521=3^2 \cdot 13^2$.
For a positive integer $n$, if $σ(n)$ denotes the sum of the positive divisors of $n$, then $n$ is called a deficient perfect number if $σ(n)=2n-d$ for some positive divisor $d$ of $n$. In this paper, we prove some results about odd deficient perfect numbers with four distinct prime factors.
The paper is concerned with estimating the number of integers smaller than $x$ whose largest prime divisor is smaller than $y$, denoted $ψ(x,y)$. Much of the related literature is concerned with approximating $ψ(x,y)$ by Dickman's function $ρ(u)$, where $u=\ln x/\ln y$. A typical such result is that $$ ψ(x,y)=xρ(u)(1+o(1)) \eqno (1) $$ in a certain domain of the parameters $x$ and $y$. In this paper a different type of approximation of $ψ(x,y)$, using iterated logarithms of $x$ and $y$, is presented. We establish that $$ \ln (\frac ψ{x})=-u [\ln ^{(2)}x-\ln ^{(2)}y+\ln ^{(3)}x-\ln ^{(3)}y+\ln …
A rationality condition is derived for the existence of odd perfect numbers involving the square root of a product, which consists of a sequence of repunits, multiplied by twice the base of one of the repunits. This constraint also provides an upper bound for density of odd integers which could satisfy ${{σ(N)}\over N}=2$, where $N$ belongs to a fixed interval with a lower limit greater than $10^{300}$. Characteristics of prime divisors of repunits are used to establish whether the product containing the repunits can be a perfect square. It is shown that the arithmetic primitive divisors with …
We show that there are infinitely many primes $p$ such that $p-1$ is divisible by a square $d^2 \geq p^θ$ for $θ=1/2+1/2000.$ This improves the work of Matomäki (2009) who obtained the result for $θ=1/2-\varepsilon$ (with the added constraint that $d$ is also a prime), which improved the result of Baier and Zhao (2006) with $θ=4/9-\varepsilon.$ Similarly as in the work of Matomäki, we apply Harman's sieve method to detect primes $p \equiv 1 \, (d^2)$. To break the $θ=1/2$ barrier we prove a new bilinear equidistribution estimate modulo smooth square moduli $d^2$ by using a similar argument as …
Let $Ω(n)$ denote the total number of prime divisors of $n$ (counting multiplicity) and let $ω(n)$ denote the number of distinct prime divisors of $n$. Various inequalities have been proved relating $ω(N)$ and $Ω(N)$ when $N$ is an odd perfect number. We improve on these inequalities. In particular, we show that if $3 \not| N$, then $Ω\geq \frac{8}{3}ω(N)-\frac{7}{3}$ and if $3 |N$ then $Ω(N) \geq \frac{21}{8}ω(N)-\frac{39}{8}.$
We extend the sum-of-divisors function to the complex plane via the Gaussian integers. Then we prove a modified form of Euler's classification of odd perfect numbers.
The study of perfect numbers (numbers which equal the sum of their proper divisors) goes back to antiquity, and is responsible for some of the oldest and most popular conjectures in number theory. We investigate a generalization introduced by Pollack and Shevelev: $k$-near-perfect numbers. These are examples to the well-known pseudoperfect numbers first defined by Sierpiński, and are numbers such that the sum of all but at most $k$ of its proper divisors equals the number. We establish their asymptotic order for all integers $k\ge 4$, as well as some properties of related quantities.
A positive integer n is said to be perfect if sigma(n)=2n, where sigma denotes the sum of the divisors of n. In this article, we show that if n is an even perfect number, then any integer m<=n is expressed as a sum of some of divisors of n.
Define B(n) to be the largest height of a polynomial in $\mathbb{Z}[x]$ dividing $x^n-1$. We formulate a number of conjectures related to the value of B(n) when $n$ is of a prescribed form. Additionally, we prove a lower bound for $B(p^aq^b)$ where $p,q$ are distinct primes.
Using Robert Spira's \cite{D} definitions of complex Mersenne numbers and the complex sum-of-divisors function, we characterize $(ω+2)$-norm-perfect and $(ω+2)$-perfect numbers that are divisble by $ω+2$ and prove the nonexistence of $2$-norm-perfect numbers that are divisible by $2$ in the Eisenstein integers.
An odd perfect number, N, is shown to have at least nine distinct prime factors. If 3 does not divide N, then N must have at least twelve distinct prime divisors. The proof ultimately avoids previous computational results for odd perfect numbers.
One of the many number theoretic topics investigated by the ancient Greeks was perfect numbers, which are positive integers equal to the sum of their proper positive integral divisors. Mathematicians from Euclid to Euler investigated these mysterious numbers. We present results on perfect numbers in the ring of Eisenstein integers.
We determine primitive solutions to the equation $(x-r)^2 + x^2 + (x+r)^2 = y^n$ for $1 \le r \le 5,000$, making use of a factorization argument and the Primitive Divisors Theorem due to Bilu, Hanrot and Voutier.
A perfect number is a positive integer n such that n equals the sum of all positive integer divisors of n that are less than n. That is, although n is a divisor of n, n is excluded from this sum. Thus 6 = 1 + 2 + 3 is perfect, but 12 < 1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + 6 is not perfect. An ACL2 theory of perfect numbers is developed and used to prove, in ACL2(r), this bit of mathematical folklore: Even if there are infinitely many perfect numbers the series of the reciprocals of all perfect numbers converges.
Acquaah and Konyagin showed that if $N$ is an odd perfect number where $N= p_1^{a_1}p_2^{a_2} \cdots p_k^{a_k}$ where $p_1 < p_2 \cdots < p_k$ then one must have $p_k < 3^{1/3}N^{1/3}$. Using methods similar to theirs, we show that $p_{k-1}< (2N)^{1/5}$ and that $p_{k-1}p_k < 6^{1/4}N^{1/2}.$ We also show that if $p_k$ and $p_{k-1}$ are close to each other than these bounds can be further strengthened.
Let $P$ be a non-torsion point on the elliptic curve $E_{a}: y^{2}=x^{3}+ax$. We show that if $a$ is fourth-power-free and either $n>2$ is even or $n>1$ is odd with $x(P)<0$ or $x(P)$ a perfect square, then the $n$-th element of the elliptic divisibility sequence generated by $P$ always has a primitive divisor.
We call $n$ a spoof odd perfect number if $n$ is odd and $n=km$ for two integers $k,m>1$ such that $σ(k)(m+1)=2n$, where $σ$ is the sum-of-divisors function. In this paper, we show how results analogous to those of odd perfect numbers could be established for spoof odd perfect numbers (otherwise known in the literature as Descartes numbers). In particular, we prove that $k$ is not almost perfect.
A perfect polynomial over the binary field $\F_2$ is a polynomial $A \in \F_2[x]$ that equals the sum of all its divisors. If $\gcd(A,x^2-x) \neq 1$ then we call $A$ even. The list of all even perfect polynomials over $\F_2$ with at most 3 prime factors in known. The object of this paper is to give the list of all even perfect polynomials over $\F_2$ with four prime factors. These are all the known perfect polynomials with four prime factors over $\F_2$.
The existence of a perfect odd number is an old open problem of number theory. An Euler's theorem states that if an odd integer $ n $ is perfect, then $ n $ is written as $ n = p ^ rm ^ 2 $, where $ r, m $ are odd numbers, $ p $ is a prime number of the form $ 4 k + 1 $ and $ (p, m) = 1 $, where $ (x, y) $ denotes the greatest common divisor of $ x $ and $ y $. In this article we show that the exponent $ r $, of $ p $, in this equation, is necessarily equal to 1. That is, if $ n $ is an odd perfect number, then $ n $ is written as $ n = pm ^ 2. $
Let $n$ be a nonzero integer. A set of nonzero integers $\{a_1,\ldots,a_m\}$ such that $a_ia_j+n$ is a perfect square for all $1\leq i<j\leq m$ is called a $D(n)$-$m$-tuple. In this paper, we consider the question, for given integer $n$ which is not a perfect square, how large and how small can be the largest element in a $D(n)$-quadruple. We construct families of $D(n)$-quadruples in which the largest element is of order of magnitude $|n|^3$, resp. $|n|^{2/5}$.
The divisor graph is the non oriented graph whose vertices are the positive integers, and edges are the {a,b} such that a divides b. Let P(n) be the largest prime factor of n, S(x,y) = {n<=x: P(n) <= y} and Psi(x,y) = Card S(x,y). Let f(x,y) be the biggest number of vertices in a simple path of the divisor graph restricted to S(x,y). We give a lower bound of f(x,y) uniformly in 2 <= y <= x which improves a result of Tenenbaum. It gives f(x) := f(x,x) >= (c + o(1)) x/logx with c = 0.3 instead of c = 0.017 in the previous result. For the little y, it implies the new formula f(x,y) = (1+o(1)) Psi…
Complete characterization of $2$-near perfect numbers with exactly 2 prime factors
University of Notre Dame（圣母大学）；Yale University（耶鲁大学）；California Institute of Technology（加州理工学院）；Massachusetts Institute of Technology（麻省理工学院）；Hopkins School（霍普金斯中学）
We define $g(n)$ to be the maximal order of an element of the symmetric group on $n$ elements. Results about the prime factorization of $g(n)$ allow a reduction of the upper bound on the largest prime divisor of $g(n)$ to $1.328\sqrt{n\log n}$.
A natural number $n$ is called {\it multiperfect} or {\it$k$-perfect} for integer $k\ge2$ if $σ(n)=kn$, where $σ(n)$ is the sum of the positive divisors of $n$. In this paper, we establish the structure theorem of odd multiperfect numbers analogous as Euler's theorem on odd perfect numbers. We prove the divisibility of the Euler part of odd multiperfect numbers and characterize the forms of odd perfect numbers $n=π^αM^2$ such that $π\equivα(\text{mod}8)$. We also present some examples to show the nonexistence of odd perfect numbers as applications.
We prove new exact formulas for the generalized sum-of-divisors functions, $σ_α(x) := \sum_{d|x} d^α$. The formulas for $σ_α(x)$ when $α\in \mathbb{C}$ is fixed and $x \geq 1$ involves a finite sum over all of the prime factors $n \leq x$ and terms involving the $r$-order harmonic number sequences and the Ramanujan sums $c_d(x)$. The generalized harmonic number sequences correspond to the partial sums of the Riemann zeta function when $r > 1$ and are related to the generalized Bernoulli numbers when $r \leq 0$ is integer-valued. A key part of our new expansions of the Lambert series generating…
We investigate the integer solutions of Diophantine equations related to perfect numbers. These solutions generalize the example, found by Descartes in 1638, of an odd, ``spoof'' perfect factorization $3^2\cdot 7^2\cdot 11^2\cdot 13^2\cdot 22021^1$. More recently, Voight found the spoof perfect factorization $3^4\cdot 7^2\cdot 11^2\cdot 19^2\cdot(-127)^1$. No other examples appear in the literature. We compute all nontrivial, odd, primitive spoof perfect factorizations with fewer than seven bases -- there are twenty-one in total. We show that the structure of odd, spoof perfect factorizations …
In the paper we can prove that every integer can be written as the sum of two integers, one perfect square and one squarefree. We also establish the asympotic formula for the number of representations of an integer in this form. The result is deeply related with the divisor function. In the course of our study we get an independent result about it. Concretely we are able to deduce a new upper bound for the divisor function valid for any integer and fully explicit.
A number is perfect if it is the sum of its proper divisors; here we call a finite group `perfect' if its order is the sum of the orders of its proper normal subgroups. (This conflicts with standard terminology but confusion should not arise.) The notion of perfect group generalizes that of perfect number, since a cyclic group is perfect exactly when its order is perfect. We show that, in fact, the only abelian perfect groups are the cyclic ones, and exhibit some non-abelian perfect groups of even order.
