cp's OEIS Frontend

Numbers of the form p*q where p and q are primes, not necessarily distinct.

These numbers are sometimes called semiprimes or 2-almost primes.

Numbers n such that Omega(n) = 2 where Omega(n) = A001222(n) is the sum of the exponents in the prime decomposition of n.

Complement of A100959; A064911(a(n)) = 1. - Reinhard Zumkeller, Nov 22 2004

The graph of this sequence appears to be a straight line with slope 4. However, the asymptotic formula shows that the linearity is an illusion and in fact a(n)/n ~ log(n)/log(log(n)) goes to infinity. See also the graph of A066265 = number of semiprimes < 10^n.

For numbers between 33 and 15495, semiprimes are more plentiful than any other k-almost prime. See A125149.

Numbers that are divisible by exactly 2 prime powers (not including 1). - Jason Kimberley, Oct 02 2011

The (disjoint) union of A006881 and A001248. - Jason Kimberley, Nov 11 2015

An equivalent definition of this sequence is a'(n) = smallest composite number which is not divided by any smaller composite number a'(1),...,a'(n-1). - Meir-Simchah Panzer, Jun 22 2016

The above characterization can be simplified to "Composite numbers not divisible by a smaller term." This shows that this is the equivalent of primes computed via Eratosthenes's sieve, but starting with the set of composite numbers (i.e., complement of 1 union primes) instead of all positive integers > 1. It's easy to see that iterating the method (using Eratosthenes's sieve each time on the remaining numbers, complement of the previously computed set) yields numbers with bigomega = k for k = 0, 1, 2, 3, ..., i.e., {1}, A000040, this, A014612, etc. - M. F. Hasler, Apr 24 2019

For all n except n = 2, a(n) is a deficient number. - Amrit Awasthi, Sep 10 2024

It is reasonable to assume that the "comforting numbers" which John T. Williams found in Chapter 3 of Milne's book "The House at Pooh Corner" are these semiprimes. Winnie-the-Pooh wonders whether he has 14 or 15 honey pots and concludes: "It's sort of comforting." To arrange a semiprime number of honey pots in a rectangular way, let's say on a shelf, with the larger divisor parallel to the wall, there is only one solution and this is for a simple mind like Winnie-the-Pooh comforting. - Ruediger Jehn, Dec 12 2024

Number of k <= n such that bigomega(k) = 3.

Let A be a positive integer then card{ x <= n : bigomega(x) = A } ~ (n/Log(n))*Log(Log(n))^(A-1)/(A-1)!. For which n, card{ x <= n : bigomega(x) = 3 } >= card{ x <= n : bigomega(x) = 2 } ?

15530 is the first number for which there are more 3-almost primes than 2-almost primes. See A125149.

Note that a(n) is an n-almost-prime. An n-almost-prime is a number having exactly n prime factors (counted with multiplicity). So 1 is the only 0-almost-prime; 1-almost-primes are the usual prime numbers; 2-almost-primes are also called semiprimes. The first three terms are mentioned in A125149.

For 2 <= n <= 4, the values for a(n)/a(n-1) (11.3, 456.8, 9733780.2) are each a little larger than A281889(n), "the median n-th least prime factor of the integers". - Peter Munn, Jan 04 2023

Pi(n, m) is the number of integers <= m that have n prime factors counting multiplicity, also known as n-almost-primes (A078840).

Related to sequence A125149, but we compare the prime count to the semiprime count, then the product-of-three-primes count, and so on.

We start with a the number two, and a prime count of 1.

Then the prime count and semiprime count are first identical when k = 10, the prime count is 4 ({2, 3, 5, 7}) and the semiprime count is also 4 ({4, 6, 9, 10}).

Next, when k = 125 the prime count of 30 and product-of-three-primes count of 30 are first identical.

Based on the write up for A125149 and examination of the factor counts as k increases, we believe this sequence is infinite, but have not proved this.