Related papers: A note on solitary numbers

Solitary numbers are shrouded with mystery. A folklore conjecture assert that 10 is a solitary number i.e. it has no friends. In this article, we establish that if $N$ is a friend of $10$ then it must be odd square with at least seven…

A solitary number is a positive integer that shares its abundancy index only with itself. $10$ is the smallest positive integer suspected to be solitary, but no proof has been established so far. In this paper, we prove that not all half of…

Does $20$ have a friend? Or is it a solitary number? A folklore conjecture asserts that $20$ has no friends i.e. it is a solitary number. In this article, we prove that, a friend $N$ of $20$ is of the form $N=2\cdot5^{2a}\cdot m^2$, with…

A friend of 12 is a positive integer different from 12 with the same abundancy index. By enlarging the supply of methods of Ward [1], it is shown that (i) if n is an odd friend of 12, then n=m^2, where m has at least 5 distinct prime…

For each positive integer n, if the sum of the factors of n is divided by n, then the result is called the abundancy index of n. If the abundancy index of some positive integer m equals the abundancy index of n but m is not equal to n, then…

Any positive integer $n$ other than 10 with abundancy index 9/5 must be a square with at least 6 distinct prime factors, the smallest being 5. Further, at least one of the prime factors must be congruent to 1 modulo 3 and appear with an…

10 is the smallest positive integer which is whether solitary or friendly is still an open question in mathematics. In this paper, we provide upper bounds for each of the prime divisors of a friend of 10. This paper is precisely a…

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…

We give a complete characterization of the parity of $b_8(n)$, the number of $8$-regular partitions of $n$. Namely, we prove that $b_8(n)$ is odd or even depending on whether or not we have the factorisation $24n+7=p^{4a+1}m^2$, for some…

In this paper we construct a cover {a_s(mod n_s)}_{s=1}^k of Z with odd moduli such that there are distinct primes p_1,...,p_k dividing 2^{n_1}-1,...,2^{n_k}-1 respectively. Using this cover we show that for any positive integer m divisible…

We estimate character sums with n!, on average, and individually. These bounds are used to derive new results about various congruences modulo a prime p and obtain new information about the spacings between quadratic nonresidues modulo p.…

For a positive integer $n$, let $\sigma(n)$ 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 $\sigma(n)=2n-d$. In this paper, we show that the only odd…

We characterise finite groups such that for an odd prime $p$ all the irreducible characters in its principal $p$-block have odd degree. We show that this situation does not occur in non-abelian simple groups of order divisible by $p$ unless…

Let $n$ be a positive square-free integer, where every odd prime factor of $n$ has form $8a\pm 1$. We determine when $n$ is non-congruent with second minimal $2$-primary Shafarevich-Tate group, in terms of the $4$-ranks of class groups and…

A pair of numbers is amicable if each number equals the sum of the proper divisors of the other. This paper after exploring the history and evolution of amicable numbers, introduces a novel characterization of amicable pairs whose greatest…

We investigate the uniqueness of factorisation of possibly disconnected finite graphs with respect to the Cartesian, the strong and the direct product. It is proved that if a graph has $n$ connected components, where $n$ is prime, or…

Let $c$ be a positive odd integer and $R$ a set of $n$ primes coprime with $c$. We consider equations $X + Y = c^z$ in three integer unknowns $X$, $Y$, $z$, where $z > 0$, $Y > X > 0$, and the primes dividing $XY$ are precisely those in…

This paper examines with elementary proofs some interesting properties of numbers in the binary quadratic form $a^2+ab+b^2$, where $a$ and $b$ are non-negative integers. Key findings of this paper are (i) a prime number $p$ can be…

Given a newform with the Fourier expansion $\sum_{n=1}^\infty b(n)q^n\in\mathbb Z[[q]]$, a prime $p$ is said to be non-ordinary if $p\mid b(p)$. We exemplify several newforms of weight 4 for which the latter divisibility implies a stronger…

We shall give an explicit upper bound for the smallest prime factor of multiperfect numbers of the form $N=p_1^{\alpha_1}\cdots p_s^{\alpha_s} q_1^{\beta_1}\cdots q_t^{\beta_t}$ with $\beta_1, \ldots, \beta_t$ bounded by a given constant.…