A098008 Length of transient part of aliquot sequence for n, or -1 if transient part is infinite.

1, 2, 2, 3, 2, 0, 2, 3, 4, 4, 2, 7, 2, 5, 5, 6, 2, 4, 2, 7, 3, 6, 2, 5, 1, 7, 3, 0, 2, 15, 2, 3, 6, 8, 3, 4, 2, 7, 3, 4, 2, 14, 2, 5, 7, 8, 2, 6, 4, 3, 4, 9, 2, 13, 3, 5, 3, 4, 2, 11, 2, 9, 3, 4, 3, 12, 2, 5, 4, 6, 2, 9, 2, 5, 5, 5, 3, 11, 2, 7, 5, 6, 2, 6, 3, 9, 7, 7, 2, 10, 4, 6, 4, 4, 2, 9, 2, 3, 4, 5, 2, 18

Offset: 1

Author

N. J. A. Sloane, Sep 09 2004

Keywords

• nonn
• easy
• nice

Comments

See A098007 for further information.

a(n) = 0 if and only if n is perfect (A000396) or part of a cycle of length greater than 1. - Comment corrected by Antti Karttunen, Nov 02 2017.

It is believed that the first time a(n) = -1 is at n = 276 (see A008892). - N. J. A. Sloane, Nov 02 2017

Examples

			From _Antti Karttunen_, Nov 02 2017: (Start)
For n = 3, a(n) = 2, because A001065(3) = 1 and A001065(1) = 0, so it took two steps to end in zero.
For n = 25, a(n) = 1, because A001065(25) = 6, and A001065(6) = 6, so it took one step to enter into a cycle.
For n = 12496, a(n) = 0, because 12496 is a member of 5-cycle of map n -> A001065(n) (see A072891).
(End)
		

References

• R. K. Guy, Unsolved Problems in Number Theory, B6.
• R. K. Guy and J. L. Selfridge, Interim report on aliquot series, pp. 557-580 of Proceedings Manitoba Conference on Numerical Mathematics. University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Oct 1971.

Links

• Antti Karttunen, Table of n, a(n) for n = 1..275

Crossrefs

Cf. A001065, A098007, A044050, A003023, A008892. See A007906 for another version.

Cf. A206708 (gives a proper subset of zeros).

Programs

Mathematica

g[n_] := If[n > 0, DivisorSigma[1, n] - n, 0]; f[n_] := NestWhileList[g, n, UnsameQ, All]; Table[ Length[ f[n]] - 2, {n, 102}] (* good only for n<220 *) (* Robert G. Wilson v, Sep 10 2004 *)

Scheme

(define (A098008 n) (let loop ((visited (list n)) (i 1)) (let ((next (A001065 (car visited)))) (cond ((zero? next) i) ((member next visited) => (lambda (transientplus1) (- (length transientplus1) 1))) (else (loop (cons next visited) (+ 1 i))))))) ;; Good for at least n = 1..275.
(define (A001065 n) (- (A000203 n) n)) ;; For an implementation of A000203, see under that entry.
;; Antti Karttunen, Nov 02 2017

Extensions

More terms from Robert G. Wilson v, Sep 10 2004