Friendly versus Solitary Numbers

Today I turned 26190 days old and discovered that this number forms one half of a friendly pair of numbers. The other half is 8148. What do these two numbers have in common? Well, we find that:$$ \frac{\sigma_1(26190)}{26190}=\frac{70560}{26190}=\frac{784}{291} \text{ and } \frac{\sigma_1(8148)}{8148}=\frac{21952}{8148}=\frac{784}{291}$$So if the sum of the divisors of one number divided by that number is the same as the sum of the divisors of another divided by that other number, then the numbers are said to be friendly. Friendly numbers are not to be confused with amicable numbers where the numbers are related in such a way that the sum of the proper divisors of one is equal to the sum of the proper divisors of the other. The smallest pair of amicable numbers is 220 and 284. 

Getting back to friendly numbers, we find that friendly triples and higher-order tuples are also possible. Friendly triples include: 

• (2160, 5400, 13104)
• (9360, 21600, 23400)
• (4320, 4680, 26208)

Friendly quadruples include: 

• (6, 28, 496, 8128)
• (3612, 11610, 63984, 70434)
• (3948, 12690, 69936, 76986)

Friendly quintuples include:

• (84, 270, 1488, 1638, 24384)
• (30, 140, 2480, 6200, 40640)
• (420, 7440, 8190, 18600, 121920)

Numbers that have friends are called friendly numbers, and numbers that do not have friends are called solitary numbers.

This ratio of the sum-of-divisors of an integer \(n\) to the integer itself is termed its abundancy and is defined as: \( \displaystyle \frac{\sigma_1(n)}{n}\).

By this definition, two numbers are friendly is they have the same abundancy.  Two numbers with the same abundancy form a friendly pair; \(n\) numbers with the same abundancy form a friendly \(n\)-tuple. 

Abundancy may also be expressed as \( \sigma _{-1}(n)\) where \( \sigma _{k} \) denotes the sum of the \(k\)-th powers of the divisors of \(n\). When \(k\)=-1, we have the sum of the reciprocals of the divisors. The abundancy of a number \(n\) should not be confused with its abundance \( A(n) \equiv  \sigma_1(n)-2n \). Refer to WolframMathWorld.

From Wikipedia we learn that:

if the numbers \(n\) and \( \sigma(n) \) are coprime – meaning that the greatest common divisor of these numbers is 1, so that \( \sigma(n)/n \) is an irreducible fraction – then the number \(n\) is solitary. For a prime number \(p\), we have \( \sigma_1(p) = p + 1\), which is co-prime with \(p\).

Thus all primes and multiples of primes are solitary. Wikipedia continues:

No general method is known for determining whether a number is "friendly" or solitary. The smallest number whose classification is unknown is 10; it is conjectured to be solitary. If it is not, its smallest friend is at least \(10^{30}\). Small numbers with a relatively large smallest friend do exist: for instance, 24 is "friendly", with its smallest friend 91,963,648.

Mutually friendly numbers as we said earlier can form friendly \(n\)-tuples that might be considered families or clubs. It's an open question whether these families have an infinite number of members. For example, it is conjectured that there are infinitely many perfect numbers but only 51 are currently known. Each perfect number has an abundancy of 2 and thus currently the perfect numbers form a 51-tuple or a family with 51 members. 

Similarly multiply perfect numbers form friendly families but firstly let's define what is meant by a multiply perfect numbers:

For a given natural number \(k\), a number \(n\) is called \(k\)-perfect (or \(k\)-fold perfect) if and only if the sum of all positive divisors of \(n\) (the divisor function, \( \sigma(n) \), is equal to \(k \times n\); a number is thus perfect if and only if it is 2-perfect. A number that is \(k\)-perfect for a certain \(k\) is called a multiply perfect number. As of 2014, \(k\)-perfect numbers are known for each value of \(k\) up to 11. Source. Also see my blog post Multiperfect, Hyperfect and Superperfect Numbers from July 24th 2019.

The club of friendly numbers with abundancy equal to 9 has 2094 known members but these multiply perfect clubs or families are thought to be finite (unlike the perfect family that is conjectured to be infinite).

There are a number of OEIS sequences associated with friendly and solitary numbers. It was stated earlier that numbers that are coprime with their sum of divisors are solitary but this is sufficient and not necessary condition for solitariness. OEIS A095739 lists those numbers that are solitary and yet not coprime with their sum of divisors:

A095739

Numbers known to be solitary but not coprime to sigma.

The first of these numbers are 18, 45, 48, 52, 136, 148, 160, 162, 176, 192, 196, 208, 232, 244, 261, 272, 292, 296, 297, 304, 320, 352, 369, ...

26190, the number that began this post, is a member of OEIS A050973:

A050973

Larger member of friendly pairs ordered by smallest maximal element.

The initial member of this sequence are:

28, 140, 200, 224, 234, 270, 308, 364, 476, 496, 496, 532, 600, 644, 672, 700, 812, 819, 868, 936, 1036, 1148, 1170, 1204, 1316, 1400, 1484, 1488, 1488, 1540, 1638, 1638, 1638, 1652, 1708, 1800, 1820, 1876, 1988, 2016, 2044, 2200, 2212, 2324, ...

The smaller members of these pairs are given by OEIS A050972:

A050972

Smaller member of friendly pairs ordered by smallest maximal element.

The initial members of this sequence are:

6, 30, 80, 40, 12, 84, 66, 78, 102, 6, 28, 114, 240, 138, 120, 150, 174, 135, 186, 864, 222, 246, 60, 258, 282, 560, 318, 84, 270, 330, 84, 270, 1488, 354, 366, 720, 390, 402, 426, 360, 438, 880, 474, 498, 510, 440, 30, 140, 534, 132, 1040, 570, 582, 606, ...

From these sequences, we can form the various pairs e.g. 28 and 6, 140 and 30 etc. Notice the two numbers (819 and 135) marked in bold in the above sequences. This pair are an example of two odd numbers being friendly. There are also cases of even being friendly to odd, such as 42 and 544635 with abundancy 16/7.