Weird number

In number theory, a weird number is a natural number that is abundant but not semiperfect. In other words, the sum of the proper divisors (divisors including 1 but not itself) of the number is greater than the number, but no subset of those divisors sums to the number itself. The smallest weird number is 70. Its proper divisors are 1, 2, 5, 7, 10, 14, and 35; these sum to 74, but no subset of these sums to 70. The number 12, for example, is abundant but not weird, because the proper divisors of 12 are 1, 2, 3, 4, and 6, which sum to 16; but 2 + 4 + 6 = 12. The first few weird numbers are 70, 836, 4030, 5830, 7192, 7912, 9272, 10430, 10570, 10792, 10990, 11410, 11690, 12110, 12530, 12670, 13370, 13510, 13790, 13930, 14770, ... . Infinitely many weird numbers exist. For example, 70p is weird for all primes p ≥ 149. In fact, the set of weird numbers has positive asymptotic density. It is not known if any odd weird numbers exist. If so, they must be greater than 1021. Sidney Kravitz has shown that for k a positive integer, Q a prime exceeding 2k, and also prime and greater than 2k, then is a weird number. With this formula, he found the large weird number A property of weird numbers is that if n is weird, and p is a prime greater than the sum of divisors σ(n), then pn is also weird. This leads to the definition of primitive weird numbers: weird numbers that are not a multiple of other weird numbers . Among the 1765 weird numbers less than one million, there are 24 primitive weird numbers. The construction of Kravitz yields primitive weird numbers, since all weird numbers of the form are primitive, but the existence of infinitely many k and Q which yield a prime R is not guaranteed. It is conjectured that there exist infinitely many primitive weird numbers, and Melfi has shown that the infiniteness of primitive weird numbers is a consequence of Cramér's conjecture. Primitive weird numbers with as many as 16 prime factors and 14712 digits have been found.

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Related concepts (3)

Weird number

Divisor function

In mathematics, and specifically in number theory, a divisor function is an arithmetic function related to the divisors of an integer. When referred to as the divisor function, it counts the number of divisors of an integer (including 1 and the number itself). It appears in a number of remarkable identities, including relationships on the Riemann zeta function and the Eisenstein series of modular forms. Divisor functions were studied by Ramanujan, who gave a number of important congruences and identities; these are treated separately in the article Ramanujan's sum.

Abundant number

In number theory, an abundant number or excessive number is a positive integer for which the sum of its proper divisors is greater than the number. The integer 12 is the first abundant number. Its proper divisors are 1, 2, 3, 4 and 6 for a total of 16. The amount by which the sum exceeds the number is the abundance. The number 12 has an abundance of 4, for example. A number n for which the sum of divisors σ(n) > 2n, or, equivalently, the sum of proper divisors (or aliquot sum) s(n) > n.