In number theory, a perfect number is a positive integer that is equal to the sum of its positive proper divisors, that is, divisors excluding the number itself. For instance, 6 has proper divisors 1, 2 and 3, and 1 + 2 + 3 = 6, so 6 is a perfect number. The next perfect number is 28, since 1 + 2 + 4 + 7 + 14 = 28.
The first four perfect numbers are 6, 28, 496 and 8128. [1]
The sum of proper divisors of a number is called its aliquot sum, so a perfect number is one that is equal to its aliquot sum. Equivalently, a perfect number is a number that is half the sum of all of its positive divisors; in symbols, where is the sum-of-divisors function.
This definition is ancient, appearing as early as Euclid's Elements (VII.22) where it is called τέλειος ἀριθμός (perfect, ideal, or complete number). Euclid also proved a formation rule (IX.36) whereby is an even perfect number whenever is a prime of the form for positive integer —what is now called a Mersenne prime. Two millennia later, Leonhard Euler proved that all even perfect numbers are of this form. [2] This is known as the Euclid–Euler theorem.
It is not known whether there are any odd perfect numbers, nor whether infinitely many perfect numbers exist.
In about 300 BC Euclid showed that if 2p − 1 is prime then 2p−1(2p − 1) is perfect. The first four perfect numbers were the only ones known to early Greek mathematics, and the mathematician Nicomachus noted 8128 as early as around AD 100. [3] In modern language, Nicomachus states without proof that every perfect number is of the form where is prime. [4] [5] He seems to be unaware that n itself has to be prime. He also says (wrongly) that the perfect numbers end in 6 or 8 alternately. (The first 5 perfect numbers end with digits 6, 8, 6, 8, 6; but the sixth also ends in 6.) Philo of Alexandria in his first-century book "On the creation" mentions perfect numbers, claiming that the world was created in 6 days and the moon orbits in 28 days because 6 and 28 are perfect. Philo is followed by Origen, [6] and by Didymus the Blind, who adds the observation that there are only four perfect numbers that are less than 10,000. (Commentary on Genesis 1. 14–19). [7] St Augustine defines perfect numbers in City of God (Book XI, Chapter 30) in the early 5th century AD, repeating the claim that God created the world in 6 days because 6 is the smallest perfect number. The Egyptian mathematician Ismail ibn Fallūs (1194–1252) mentioned the next three perfect numbers (33,550,336; 8,589,869,056; and 137,438,691,328) and listed a few more which are now known to be incorrect. [8] The first known European mention of the fifth perfect number is a manuscript written between 1456 and 1461 by an unknown mathematician. [9] In 1588, the Italian mathematician Pietro Cataldi identified the sixth (8,589,869,056) and the seventh (137,438,691,328) perfect numbers, and also proved that every perfect number obtained from Euclid's rule ends with a 6 or an 8. [10] [11] [12]
Euclid proved that is an even perfect number whenever is prime ( Elements , Prop. IX.36).
For example, the first four perfect numbers are generated by the formula with p a prime number, as follows:
Prime numbers of the form are known as Mersenne primes, after the seventeenth-century monk Marin Mersenne, who studied number theory and perfect numbers. For to be prime, it is necessary that p itself be prime. However, not all numbers of the form with a prime p are prime; for example, 211 − 1 = 2047 = 23 × 89 is not a prime number. [a] In fact, Mersenne primes are very rare: of the primes p up to 68,874,199, is prime for only 48 of them. [13]
While Nicomachus had stated (without proof) that all perfect numbers were of the form where is prime (though he stated this somewhat differently), Ibn al-Haytham (Alhazen) circa AD 1000 was unwilling to go that far, declaring instead (also without proof) that the formula yielded only every even perfect number. [14] It was not until the 18th century that Leonhard Euler proved that the formula will yield all the even perfect numbers. Thus, there is a one-to-one correspondence between even perfect numbers and Mersenne primes; each Mersenne prime generates one even perfect number, and vice versa. This result is often referred to as the Euclid–Euler theorem.
An exhaustive search by the GIMPS distributed computing project has shown that the first 48 even perfect numbers are for
Four higher perfect numbers have also been discovered, namely those for which p = 74207281, 77232917, 82589933 and 136279841. Although it is still possible there may be others within this range, initial but exhaustive tests by GIMPS have revealed no other perfect numbers for p below 109332539. As of October 2024 [update] , 52 Mersenne primes are known, [15] and therefore 52 even perfect numbers (the largest of which is 2136279840 × (2136279841 − 1) with 82,048,640 digits). It is not known whether there are infinitely many perfect numbers, nor whether there are infinitely many Mersenne primes.
As well as having the form , each even perfect number is the -th triangular number (and hence equal to the sum of the integers from 1 to ) and the -th hexagonal number. Furthermore, each even perfect number except for 6 is the -th centered nonagonal number and is equal to the sum of the first odd cubes (odd cubes up to the cube of ):
Even perfect numbers (except 6) are of the form
with each resulting triangular number T7 = 28, T31 = 496, T127 = 8128 (after subtracting 1 from the perfect number and dividing the result by 9) ending in 3 or 5, the sequence starting with T2 = 3, T10 = 55, T42 = 903, T2730 = 3727815, ... [16] It follows that by adding the digits of any even perfect number (except 6), then adding the digits of the resulting number, and repeating this process until a single digit (called the digital root) is obtained, always produces the number 1. For example, the digital root of 8128 is 1, because 8 + 1 + 2 + 8 = 19, 1 + 9 = 10, and 1 + 0 = 1. This works with all perfect numbers with odd prime p and, in fact, with all numbers of the form for odd integer (not necessarily prime) m.
Owing to their form, every even perfect number is represented in binary form as p ones followed by p − 1 zeros; for example:
Thus every even perfect number is a pernicious number.
Every even perfect number is also a practical number (cf. Related concepts).
It is unknown whether any odd perfect numbers exist, though various results have been obtained. In 1496, Jacques Lefèvre stated that Euclid's rule gives all perfect numbers, [17] thus implying that no odd perfect number exists, but Euler himself stated: "Whether ... there are any odd perfect numbers is a most difficult question". [18] More recently, Carl Pomerance has presented a heuristic argument suggesting that indeed no odd perfect number should exist. [19] All perfect numbers are also harmonic divisor numbers, and it has been conjectured as well that there are no odd harmonic divisor numbers other than 1. Many of the properties proved about odd perfect numbers also apply to Descartes numbers, and Pace Nielsen has suggested that sufficient study of those numbers may lead to a proof that no odd perfect numbers exist. [20]
Any odd perfect number N must satisfy the following conditions:
Furthermore, several minor results are known about the exponents e1, ..., ek.
In 1888, Sylvester stated: [48]
... a prolonged meditation on the subject has satisfied me that the existence of any one such [odd perfect number]—its escape, so to say, from the complex web of conditions which hem it in on all sides—would be little short of a miracle.
All even perfect numbers have a very precise form; odd perfect numbers either do not exist or are rare. There are a number of results on perfect numbers that are actually quite easy to prove but nevertheless superficially impressive; some of them also come under Richard Guy's strong law of small numbers:
The sum of proper divisors gives various other kinds of numbers. Numbers where the sum is less than the number itself are called deficient, and where it is greater than the number, abundant. These terms, together with perfect itself, come from Greek numerology. A pair of numbers which are the sum of each other's proper divisors are called amicable, and larger cycles of numbers are called sociable. A positive integer such that every smaller positive integer is a sum of distinct divisors of it is a practical number.
By definition, a perfect number is a fixed point of the restricted divisor function s(n) = σ(n) − n, and the aliquot sequence associated with a perfect number is a constant sequence. All perfect numbers are also -perfect numbers, or Granville numbers.
A semiperfect number is a natural number that is equal to the sum of all or some of its proper divisors. A semiperfect number that is equal to the sum of all its proper divisors is a perfect number. Most abundant numbers are also semiperfect; abundant numbers which are not semiperfect are called weird numbers.
In number theory, a Carmichael number is a composite number which in modular arithmetic satisfies the congruence relation:
A prime number is a natural number greater than 1 that is not a product of two smaller natural numbers. A natural number greater than 1 that is not prime is called a composite number. For example, 5 is prime because the only ways of writing it as a product, 1 × 5 or 5 × 1, involve 5 itself. However, 4 is composite because it is a product (2 × 2) in which both numbers are smaller than 4. Primes are central in number theory because of the fundamental theorem of arithmetic: every natural number greater than 1 is either a prime itself or can be factorized as a product of primes that is unique up to their order.
In mathematics, a Fermat number, named after Pierre de Fermat (1607–1665), the first known to have studied them, is a positive integer of the form: where n is a non-negative integer. The first few Fermat numbers are: 3, 5, 17, 257, 65537, 4294967297, 18446744073709551617, ....
In mathematics, a multiply perfect number is a generalization of a perfect number.
In mathematics, an almost perfect number (sometimes also called slightly defective or least deficientnumber) is a natural number n such that the sum of all divisors of n (the sum-of-divisors function σ(n)) is equal to 2n − 1, the sum of all proper divisors of n, s(n) = σ(n) − n, then being equal to n − 1. The only known almost perfect numbers are powers of 2 with non-negative exponents (sequence A000079 in the OEIS). Therefore the only known odd almost perfect number is 20 = 1, and the only known even almost perfect numbers are those of the form 2k for some positive integer k; however, it has not been shown that all almost perfect numbers are of this form. It is known that an odd almost perfect number greater than 1 would have at least six prime factors.
In number theory, a k-hyperperfect number is a natural number n for which the equality holds, where σ(n) is the divisor function (i.e., the sum of all positive divisors of n). A hyperperfect number is a k-hyperperfect number for some integer k. Hyperperfect numbers generalize perfect numbers, which are 1-hyperperfect.
In number theory, a Wieferich prime is a prime number p such that p2 divides 2p − 1 − 1, therefore connecting these primes with Fermat's little theorem, which states that every odd prime p divides 2p − 1 − 1. Wieferich primes were first described by Arthur Wieferich in 1909 in works pertaining to Fermat's Last Theorem, at which time both of Fermat's theorems were already well known to mathematicians.
63 (sixty-three) is the natural number following 62 and preceding 64.
127 is the natural number following 126 and preceding 128. It is also a prime number.
In mathematics, a harmonic divisor number or Ore number is a positive integer whose divisors have a harmonic mean that is an integer. The first few harmonic divisor numbers are
A hexagonal number is a figurate number. The nth hexagonal number hn is the number of distinct dots in a pattern of dots consisting of the outlines of regular hexagons with sides up to n dots, when the hexagons are overlaid so that they share one vertex.
In mathematics, an untouchable number is a positive integer that cannot be expressed as the sum of all the proper divisors of any positive integer. That is, these numbers are not in the image of the aliquot sum function. Their study goes back at least to Abu Mansur al-Baghdadi, who observed that both 2 and 5 are untouchable.
In number theory, a practical number or panarithmic number is a positive integer such that all smaller positive integers can be represented as sums of distinct divisors of . For example, 12 is a practical number because all the numbers from 1 to 11 can be expressed as sums of its divisors 1, 2, 3, 4, and 6: as well as these divisors themselves, we have 5 = 3 + 2, 7 = 6 + 1, 8 = 6 + 2, 9 = 6 + 3, 10 = 6 + 3 + 1, and 11 = 6 + 3 + 2.
In mathematics, a perfect power is a natural number that is a product of equal natural factors, or, in other words, an integer that can be expressed as a square or a higher integer power of another integer greater than one. More formally, n is a perfect power if there exist natural numbers m > 1, and k > 1 such that mk = n. In this case, n may be called a perfect kth power. If k = 2 or k = 3, then n is called a perfect square or perfect cube, respectively. Sometimes 0 and 1 are also considered perfect powers.
In number theory, a polite number is a positive integer that can be written as the sum of two or more consecutive positive integers. A positive integer which is not polite is called impolite. The impolite numbers are exactly the powers of two, and the polite numbers are the natural numbers that are not powers of two.
In mathematics, a natural number a is a unitary divisor of a number b if a is a divisor of b and if a and are coprime, having no common factor other than 1. Equivalently, a divisor a of b is a unitary divisor if and only if every prime factor of a has the same multiplicity in a as it has in b.
In mathematics, and particularly in number theory, N is a primary pseudoperfect number if it satisfies the Egyptian fraction equation
In number theory, Gillies' conjecture is a conjecture about the distribution of prime divisors of Mersenne numbers and was made by Donald B. Gillies in a 1964 paper in which he also announced the discovery of three new Mersenne primes. The conjecture is a specialization of the prime number theorem and is a refinement of conjectures due to I. J. Good and Daniel Shanks. The conjecture remains an open problem: several papers give empirical support, but it disagrees with the widely accepted Lenstra–Pomerance–Wagstaff conjecture.
The Euclid–Euler theorem is a theorem in number theory that relates perfect numbers to Mersenne primes. It states that an even number is perfect if and only if it has the form 2p−1(2p − 1), where 2p − 1 is a prime number. The theorem is named after mathematicians Euclid and Leonhard Euler, who respectively proved the "if" and "only if" aspects of the theorem.