English

A statistical investigation of a divisor-sum function

Number Theory 2026-04-08 v1

Abstract

The sum of proper divisors function s(n)s(n) has been studied for more than 2000 years. In this paper we study statistical properties of the related function Ss(n):=dns(d)S_s(n) := \sum_{d \mid n} s(d). This function arises from a generalization of the practical numbers. We prove that Ss(n)/nS_s(n)/n has a continuous asymptotic distribution function, and that its values are dense in the interval [0,)[0,\infty). We also establish mean value computations for Ss(n)S_s(n) and Ss(n)/nS_s(n)/n, and provide uniform bounds for the higher order moments of Ss(n)/nS_s(n)/n. The main novelty in this paper is that we highlight a new method of Lebowitz-Lockard and Pollack that is useful for showing that certain functions have a continuous distribution function where classical methods sometimes fail.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2604.05284,
  title  = {A statistical investigation of a divisor-sum function},
  author = {Ivan Aidun and Lola Thompson},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2604.05284},
  year   = {2026}
}

Comments

14 pages

R2 v1 2026-07-01T11:56:23.236Z