Incorrect conjecture
franktaw at netscape.net
franktaw at netscape.net
Fri Nov 10 00:40:10 CET 2006
The conjecture in http://www.research.att.com/~njas/sequences/A092903
is wrong. This conjecture is that A092903 is not the same as A005153.
Translated, the opposite of this conjecture is that if every number up
to m can be expressed as the sum of distinct divisors of m, then every
number up to sigma(m) can be. (The latter condition is known as m is
practical.)
Following the link from A005153 to
http://planetmath.org/encyclopedia/PracticalNumber.html, we find the
lemma (paraphrased for non-graphical presentation): an integer m >= 2
with factorization Product_{i=1}^k p_i^e_i with the p_i in ascending
order is practical if and only if p_1 = 2 and, for 1 < i <= k, p_i <=
sigma(Product_{j < i} p_j^e_j) + 1.
Proof: Let m = Product_{i=1}^k p_i^e_i be a number not of this form.
If p_1 != 2, 2 cannot be represented as a sum. If p_i >
sigma(Product_{j<i} p_j^e_j) + 1, then sigma(Product_{j<i} p_j^e_j) + 1
cannot be represented as the sum, and since this number is less than
p_i, it is less than m. Hence not every number up to m can be
expressed as the sum of distinct divisors of m. Thus if every number
up to m is expressible as the sum of distinct divisors, so is every
number up to sigma(m). The converse is trivial, so the conditions are
equivalent.
Hence A092903 is a duplicate of A005153.
Franklin T. Adams-Watters
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