A194156 Prime number that appears the most often as the n-th prime factor of an integer in a factorization given in ascending order.

13, 23, 47, 113, 199, 283, 467, 887, 1627, 2803, 4297, 6397, 10343, 18461, 29453, 43067, 67993, 102679, 155893, 267961, 395323, 617819, 926707, 1513751, 2160469, 3278837, 4991687, 7115989, 11113793, 16310629, 24417233, 33888653, 52100569, 76020569

Offset: 4

Author

Alonso del Arte, Aug 17 2011

Keywords

• nonn
• nice

Comments

a(1) = 2 and a(2) = 3. The table in Koninck's book has 5 and 7 tied for third place.

Examples

			a(1) = 2 because, since a randomly chosen number has a 50% chance of being even, the first prime in the factorization of an integer is most likely to be 2.
a(4) = 13 because in the factorization of a number with four or more prime factors, 13 is likeliest to be fourth.
		

References

• J.-M. De Koninck, Those Fascinating Numbers, Amer. Math. Soc., 2009, page 56.

Links

• Jon E. Schoenfield, Magma code

Crossrefs

Cf. A096294, A284411.

Programs

Magma

// See link above.

Mathematica

a[n_] := a[n] = (ClearAll[ CurrPrimes, t]; d = 1.0; For[i = 1, i <= n, i++, CurrPrimes[i] = Prime[i]; d = d*CurrPrimes[i]; t[i] = 1.0]; Freq = t[n]/d; k = n; FreqMax1 = Freq; kAtFreqMax1 = k; While[ k <= kAtFreqMax1*2 , k = k+1;  t[1] = t[1]*(CurrPrimes[1] - 1); CurrPrimes[1] = CurrPrimes[2]; For[i = 2, i <= n, i++,  t[i] = t[i]*(CurrPrimes[i] - 1) + t[i-1]; CurrPrimes[i-1] = CurrPrimes[i]]; CurrPrimes[n] = NextPrime[ CurrPrimes[n-1]]; d = d*CurrPrimes[n]; Freq = t[n]/d; If[ Freq > FreqMax1 , FreqMax1 = Freq; kAtFreqMax1 = k]; If[ Mod[k, 100] == 0 || (CurrPrimes[n] == 16111) , k,  CurrPrimes[n], Freq]; (*end while*)];  Prime[kAtFreqMax1] ); A194156 = Table[ Print["a(", n, ") = ", a[n]]; a[n], {n, 4, 30}] (* Jean-François Alcover, Dec 14 2011, translated from Jon E. Schoenfield's Magma code *)

Formula

a(n) = prime(k) k >= n, such that A096294(k-1, n-1)/A002110(k) >= A096294(i-1, n-1)/A002110(i) for i >= n, i <> k. - Peter Munn, Jul 31 2019

Extensions

Corrected and extended from a(19) onwards by Jon E. Schoenfield, who says (Start):

a(13) was given as 2083, but should be 2803 (apparent typo).

a(17) was given as 16111, which is the most-frequently-appearing 17th prime factor among any primes *up to that point*, as well as for a considerable distance beyond it ... but (after a significant gap) there are larger primes that appear as the 17th prime factor with a slightly higher frequency; beyond 16111, new record highs occur at 18257, 18311, 18313, 18457, and 18461 (the last of which is the correct value for a(17)).

a(18) was given as 24251, but a similar situation applies there; it's the most-frequently-appearing 18th prime factor among any primes up to that point, but it's beaten out by 27109, which is the best until 29443, which is the best until 29453 (which is the correct value for a(18)). (End)