Related papers: Bounded-box reductions in the Subbarao-Warren prob…

A perfect number is a positive integer $N$ such that the sum of all the positive divisors of $N$ equals $2N$, denoted by $\sigma(N) = 2N$. The question of the existence of odd perfect numbers (OPNs) is one of the longest unsolved problems…

Let $\sigma(n)$ be the sum of the positive divisors of $n$. A positive integer $n$ is said to be $2$-near perfect when $\sigma(n)=2n+d_1+d_2$, where $d_1$ and $d_2$ are distinct positive divisors of $n$. We show that there are no odd…

Inspired by Cohen and te Riele~\cite{Cohen1996}, who computationally verified that for every $n \leq 400$ there exists $k$ such that $\sigma^k(n) \equiv 0 \pmod{n}$ (where $\sigma^k$ denotes the $k$-fold iteration of the sum-of-divisors…

For a positive integer $n$, if $\sigma(n)$ denotes the sum of the positive divisors of $n$, then $n$ is called a deficient perfect number if $\sigma(n)=2n-d$ for some positive divisor $d$ of $n$. In this paper, we prove some results about…

Let $\sigma(n)$ to be the sum of the positive divisors of $n$. A number is non-deficient if $\sigma(n) \geq 2n$. We establish new lower bounds for the number of distinct prime factors of an odd non-deficient number in terms of its second…

It is sufficient to prove that there is an excess of prime factors in the product of repunits with odd prime bases defined by the sum of divisors of the integer $N=(4k+1)^{4m+1}\prod_{i=1}^\ell ~ q_i^{2\alpha_i}$ to establish that there do…

Let $\sigma(n)$ be the sum of the positive divisors of $n$. A number $n$ is said to be 2-near perfect if $\sigma(n) = 2n +d_1 +d_2 $, where $d_1$ and $d_2$ are distinct positive divisors of $n$. We give a complete description of those $n$…

A unitary divisor $c$ of a positive integer $n$ is a positive divisor of $n$ that is relatively prime to $\displaystyle{\frac{n}{c}}$. For any integer $k$, the function $\sigma_k^*$ is a multiplicative arithmetic function defined so that…

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 $\sigma(A)/A $ is still a binary polynomial. Technically, we prove that the…

Let $A=\{a_{1},\ldots,a_{k}\}$ be a nonempty finite subset of an additive abelian group $G$. For a positive integer $h$, the restricted $h$-fold signed sumset of $A$, denoted by $h^{\wedge}_{\pm}A$, is defined as $$h^{\wedge}_{\pm}A =…

Let $A$ be a nonempty subset of finite abelian group $G$ of order $n$. For an integer $h \geq 2$, the restricted $h$-fold sumset $h^\wedge A$ is the set of all sums of $h$ distinct elements of $A$. It is known that if $G$ is a group of…

We consider the exceptional set in the binary Goldbach problem for sums of two almost twin primes. Our main result is a power-saving bound for the exceptional set in the problem of representing $m=p_1+p_2$ where $p_1+2$ has at most $2$…

It is an open problem whether $ \binom{2n}{n} $ is divisible by 4 or 9 for all $n>256$. In connection with this, we prove that for a fixed uneven $m$ the asymptotic density of $k$'s such that $ m \nmid \binom{2^{k+1}}{2^{k}} $ is 0. To do…

Erd\H{o}s asked whether there are infinitely many finite sets of distinct primes $p_1<\cdots<p_k$ and positive integers $m$ such that \begin{equation}\label{eq:erdos-original} \frac1{p_1}+\cdots+\frac1{p_k}=1-\frac1m. \end{equation} This is…

Let $n$ and $k$ be positive integers and $\sigma(n)$ 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…

Let $\sigma(n)$ denote the sum of the positive divisors of $n$. We say that $n$ is perfect if $\sigma(n) = 2 n$. Currently there are no known odd perfect numbers. It is known that if an odd perfect number exists, then it must be of the form…

A set of integers is sum-free if it contains no solution to the equation $x+y=z$. We study sum-free subsets of the set of integers $[n]=\{1,\ldots,n\}$ for which the integer $2n+1$ cannot be represented as a sum of their elements. We prove…

The Subset Sum problem, which asks whether a set of $n$ integers has a subset summing to a target $t$, is a fundamental NP-complete problem in cryptography and combinatorial optimization. The classical meet-in-the-middle (MIM) algorithm of…

This paper investigates the dynamics of the iterated sum-of-divisors function $\sigma_k(m)$ and its behaviour modulo $m$, motivated by classical questions on perfect and multiperfect numbers and by the congruences $\sigma_k(m) \equiv 0…

Let $r \ge 2$ be an integer and let $A$ be a finite, nonempty set of nonzero integers. We will obtain a lower bound for the number of squarefree integers $n$, up to $x$, for which the products $\prod_{p \mid n} (p+a)$ (over primes $p$) are…