English

On perfect, amicable, and sociable chains

Combinatorics 2010-11-19 v1 Discrete Mathematics Number Theory

Abstract

Let x=(x0,...,xn1)x = (x_0,...,x_{n-1}) be an n-chain, i.e., an n-tuple of non-negative integers <n< n. Consider the operator s:xx=(x0,...,xn1)s: x \mapsto x' = (x'_0,...,x'_{n-1}), where x'_j represents the number of jj's appearing among the components of x. An n-chain x is said to be perfect if s(x)=xs(x) = x. For example, (2,1,2,0,0) is a perfect 5-chain. Analogously to the theory of perfect, amicable, and sociable numbers, one can define from the operator s the concepts of amicable pair and sociable group of chains. In this paper we give an exhaustive list of all the perfect, amicable, and sociable chains.

Cite

@article{arxiv.0708.1491,
  title  = {On perfect, amicable, and sociable chains},
  author = {Jean-Luc Marichal},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:0708.1491},
  year   = {2010}
}

Comments

10 pages

R2 v1 2026-06-21T09:06:36.545Z