A363444 a(n) = n for n <= 3; for n > 3, a(n) is the smallest positive number that has not yet appeared that includes as factors the distinct prime factors of a(n-2) and a(n-1) that are not shared between a(n-2) and a(n-1).

1, 2, 3, 6, 4, 9, 12, 8, 15, 30, 10, 18, 45, 20, 24, 60, 5, 36, 90, 25, 42, 210, 35, 48, 420, 70, 21, 120, 140, 63, 150, 280, 84, 75, 350, 126, 105, 40, 168, 315, 50, 252, 525, 80, 294, 630, 55, 462, 840, 110, 231, 1050, 220, 693, 1260, 330, 77, 1470, 660, 154, 735, 990, 308, 945, 1320, 616, 1155

Offset: 1

Author

Scott R. Shannon, Jun 02 2023

Keywords

• nonn

Comments

The last prime to appear in the first 10000 terms is a(17) = 5, and it is unknown if more appear. The largest terms increase rapidly in size, e.g., a(8924) = 2233642178577810, although subsequent terms can be significantly smaller. It is unknown is all numbers eventually appear.

Examples

			a(4) = 6 as a(2) = 2 and a(3) = 3 contain the distinct prime factors 2 and 3 respectively, both of which only appear in one term. Therefore a(4) is the smallest unused number that contains both 2 and 3 as factors, which is 6.
a(6) = 9 as a(4) = 6 = 2*3 and a(5) = 4 = 2*2, so 3 is the only prime factor that is not shared between these terms. Therefore a(6) is the smallest unused number that contains 3 as a factor, which is 9.
		

Links

• Michael De Vlieger, Table of n, a(n) for n = 1..10000
• Michael De Vlieger, Log log scatterplot of a(n), n = 1..2^20.
• Michael De Vlieger, Log log scatterplot of a(n), n = 1..2^10, showing primes in red, composite prime powers in gold, squarefree composites in green, and other numbers in blue.
• Michael De Vlieger, Plot p(i)^e(i) | a(n) at (x,y) = (n,i) for n = 1..2048, 12X vertical exaggeration, with a color function representing e(i), where black indicates e(i) = 1, red indicates e(i) = 2, yellow-green = 3, green = 4, and blue = 5. The bar at bottom indicates primes in red, composite prime powers in gold, squarefree composites in green, and numbers neither squarefree nor prime powers in blue.

Crossrefs

Cf. A098550, A336957, A362600, A362754, A351495, A359804.

Programs

Mathematica

nn = 120; c[] := False; m[] := 1; Array[Set[{a[#], c[#]}, {#, True}] &, 3];
i = {a[2]}; j = {a[3]}; Do[q = Times @@ SymmetricDifference[i, j]; While[c[Set[k, q m[q]]], m[q]++]; Set[{a[n], c[k], i, j}, {k, True, j, FactorInteger[k][[All, 1]]}], {n, 4, nn}]; Array[a, nn] (* Michael De Vlieger, Jun 05 2023 *)