1 Introduction
Let
$d(n)=\sum _{d\mid n}1$
and
$\sigma (n)=\sum _{d\mid n}d$
denote respectively the number and the sum of the positive divisors of a positive integer n. Ore [Reference Ore7] studied the set of numbers S for which the ratio
$H(n)={nd(n)}/{\sigma (n)}$
is an integer. Such numbers are called harmonic numbers. Note that the set of perfect numbers is a subset of S.
Subsequently, this notion was generalised to the other types of divisor functions. Hagis and Lord [Reference Hagis and Lord4] introduced the unitary analogue of the harmonic numbers. A positive integer d is called a unitary divisor of N if
$d\mid N$
and
$(d,N/d)=1$
. A positive integer N is said to be a unitary harmonic number (UHN) if the harmonic mean of the unitary divisors of N, given by
is an integer. Here,
$\omega (N)$
is the number of distinct prime factors of N.
Let
From the fact that the binary representation of a natural number is unique, it follows that every
$N>1$
can be written in exactly one way (up to the order of the factors) as the product of distinct elements from I. Each element of I in this product is called an I-component of N.
We denote the number of I-components of N by
$J=J(N)$
. Clearly,
$J(N)$
is an additive function given by
$J(1)=0$
and
$J(p^y)=\sum _{y_i=1}1$
if
$y=\sum _{i=0}^{\infty }y_i2^i$
.
A divisor d of N is said to be an I-divisor if every I-component of d is also an I-component of N. Let
$d_{\infty }(N)$
and
$\sigma _{\infty }(N)$
denote respectively the number and the sum of the I-divisors of N. It is easy to see that
$d_{\infty }(N)$
and
$\sigma _{\infty }(N)$
are multiplicative functions defined by
Hagis and Cohen [Reference Hagis and Cohen3] defined N to be an infinitary harmonic number (IHN) if the infinitary harmonic mean of N, defined by
is an integer. They showed that there exist at most finitely many IHNs with a specified number of I-components and only finitely many with a specified infinitary harmonic mean. In our first theorem, we establish an explicit upper bound for the number of IHNs which is similar to Nielsen’s bound for odd perfect numbers [Reference Nielsen6]. (See also a recent paper by Stone [Reference Stone8].)
Theorem 1.1. Suppose that N is an IHN with
$J=J(N)\, I$
-components and
$H_{\infty }(N)=c$
. Then:
-
(a) $N\le c^{c^2}$
; -
(b) $N\le (2^{2^J-1})^J$
.
For an integer
$k\ge 2$
, we call a tuple of k positive integers
$(M_i)_{i=1}^k$
an infinitary amicable k-tuple if the equation
is satisfied. This is a generalisation of infinitary amicable pairs, defined by Cohen [Reference Cohen2]. We also introduce a new class of tuples of integers.
For an integer
$k\ge 2$
, we say a tuple of positive integers
$(M_i)_{i=1}^k$
is an infinitary harmonious k-tuple if the equation
holds. Note that if
$(M_i)_{i=1}^k$
is an infinitary amicable tuple, then
so every infinitary amicable tuple is infinitary harmonious.
Borho [Reference Borho1] proved an upper bound for amicable pairs
$(M,N)$
in terms of
$\Omega (MN)$
, the number of prime factors of
$MN$
counted with multiplicity. In our next theorem, we give an upper bound for the number of infinitary harmonious k-tuples which is analogous to Borho’s bound.
Theorem 1.2. For any infinitary harmonious k-tuple
$(M_i)_{i=1}^k$
,
2 Preliminaries
In this section, we give some lemmas that are useful for the proof of the main results. In the first lemma due to Hagis and Cohen [Reference Hagis and Cohen3], we collect some elementary results concerning
$H_{\infty }(N)$
and IHNs.
Lemma 2.1.
-
(a) Let $J=J(N)$
. If
$N>1$
, then (2.1) $$ \begin{align} \frac{2^{J+1}}{J+2}\le H_{\infty}(N)<2^J. \end{align} $$
-
(b) If N is an odd $IHN$
, then
$H_{\infty }(N)$
is odd. -
(c) If N is an odd $IHN$
,
$p^y\mid \mid N$
and
$p=4m+3$
, then y is even.
We also need an upper bound for the minimum and maximum I-components of an IHN.
Lemma 2.2. Let
$p^a$
and
$r^c$
respectively be the minimum and maximum I-components of an
$IHN$
. Then,
Proof. We have
and
The next lemma identifies IHNs with a few selected values of J and
$H_{\infty }(N)$
.
Lemma 2.3. Let N be an
$IHN$
with
$J=J(N)\, I$
-components and let
$H_{\infty }(N)=c$
.
-
(a) If $J\le 3$
, then
$N\in \{1,6,45,60,90,15925\}$
. -
(b) If $c\le 5$
, then
$N\in \{1,6,45,60,90\}$
.
Proof. (a) Let
$T_{k,\ell }$
denote the set of IHNs which have
$k\, I$
-components and exactly
$\ell $
prime factors. Clearly,
$T_{k,1}$
is empty for every
$k\ge 1$
. If
$N\in T_{2,2}$
, then
$N=p^aq^b$
, where
$q>p$
are primes and
$a,b$
are powers of
$2$
. In this case,
$H_{\infty }(N)=H^*(N)$
, where
$H^*(N)$
is the harmonic mean of the unitary divisors of N and, thus, N is a unitary harmonic number (UHN). Therefore,
$T_{2,2}=\{6,45\}$
.
If
$N\in T_{3,2}$
, then from Lemma 2.1(a),
$H_{\infty }(N)=4,5,6$
or
$7$
. We consider here the cases
$H_{\infty }(N)=6$
and
$7$
; the other cases can be treated in a similar way. If
$H_{\infty }(N)=6$
, then N is even,
$3\mid N$
and by Lemma 2.2,
$p^a=4,5,7$
. If
$p^a=4,5$
or
$7$
, then N has three prime factors. If
$H_{\infty }(N)=7$
, then
$7\mid N$
. Assume first that
$2\mid N$
. Then,
$N=2^{2^{a^\prime }+2^a}7^{2^b}$
or
$N=2^{2^a}7^{2^{b^\prime }+2^b}$
. Hence, N must satisfy either
or
If
$m\ge 1$
, then any odd prime divisor of the generalised Fermat number
$7^{2^m}+1$
is of the form
$k\cdot 2^{m+1}+1$
and must divide the right-hand side of the above equations, which is impossible. Now, assume that N is odd. Then, using Lemma 2.1(c) and Lemma 2.2,
$7^2\mid N$
and
$p^a=9,13,17$
. If
$p^a=9$
or
$17$
, then N has three prime factors. If
$p^a=13$
, then
$N=7^{2^b}13^{2^a+1}$
or
$N=7^{2^c+2^d}13$
, where
$a\ge 1$
,
$b\ge 1$
and
$d>c\ge 1$
. In the former case,
$H_{\infty }(N)>H_{\infty }(13^37^2)>7$
and in the latter case,
$H_{\infty }(N)>H_{\infty }(13\cdot 7^6)>7$
. By considering the remaining cases of
$H_{\infty }(N)$
, one can show that no such IHN exists. Thus,
$T_{3,2}$
is empty.
If
$N\in T_{3,3}$
, then
$N=p^{2^a}q^{2^b}r^{2^c}$
with
$p<q<r$
primes and
$H_{\infty }(N)=H^*(N)$
. Hence, N is a UHN and
$T_{3,3}=\{60,90,15925\}$
.
(b) Note that if
$J\ge 4$
, then from the inequality (2.1), we get
$c>5$
. Since
$H_{\infty }(15925)=7$
, the result follows from part (a).
The next two lemmas due to Goto [Reference Goto5] and Suzuki [Reference Suzuki9] respectively play an important role in the proofs of the upper bounds for IHNs and infinitary harmonious tuples.
Lemma 2.4. Let
$r,a,b$
be positive integers, and let
$x_1,\ldots ,x_r$
be integers such that
$1\le x_1<x_2<\cdots <x_r$
and
Then,
with equality if and only if
$x_j=m_j$
,
$1\le j\le r$
, where
Lemma 2.5. Let k and R be positive integers. Consider a sequence of integers
a decomposition of the index set
and a tuple of integers
satisfying
$a_i\ge b_i$
for all i. If a pair of inequalities
holds, then
3 Proofs of the theorems
Proof of Theorem 1.1
We follow closely the argument of Goto [Reference Goto5]. Observe that
We arrange the
$J\, I$
-components of N in ascending order. Applying Lemma 2.4 with
$x_{\alpha }=p^{2^\alpha }$
,
$a=2^J$
,
$b=c$
and
$r=J$
,
From Lemma 2.3, the required inequalities hold if
$J\le 3$
or
$c\le 5$
. Thus, we may assume that
$J\ge 4$
and
$c\ge 6$
. From the inequality (2.1),
$c+1\le 2^J$
. Combining this with inequality (3.1) gives part (b).
We now consider part (a). From
$J\ge 4$
, we easily get
$J+2<2^{(2J+3)/4}$
. Thus, Lemma 2.1(a) implies that
Therefore,
$2^J<c^2/\sqrt {2}$
. From
$c\ge 6$
, we easily deduce that
$c+1<c^{\sqrt {2}}$
. Hence, it follows that
as desired.
Proof of Theorem 1.2
Let
$(M_i)_{i=1}^k$
be an infinitary harmonious tuple. Using
we can rewrite (1.1) as
Arranging the I-components of
$M_1,\ldots ,M_k$
in ascending order and applying Lemma 2.5 with
$m_{\alpha }=1+p^{2^{\alpha }}$
,
$a_i=b_i=1$
, we see that
where L is given by
By using the AM-GM inequality in (1.1), we have
or
Multiplying both sides by
$M_1\cdots M_k$
, we obtain
Combining this with (3.2), gives the required assertion.