Problems

Let S(x) count ordered pairs (a,b) with a+b ≤ x and σ(a)+σ(b) = σ(a+b). Erdos asked whether S(x) ~ cx. The opposite extreme holds: for every R > 0, S(x)/(x(log x)^R) → ∞, so the count beats every fixed logarithmic scale.

Ross introduced S-perfect numbers, integers expressible as 1 + ∑ λ_j d_j over their proper divisors with coefficients in S, and conjectured that they have the same density as the nondeficient numbers, plus a second conjecture relating odd…

Erdős and Graham asked whether binomnk with 1 ≤ k ≤ n/2 must always have a divisor ≤ n that is close to n, meaning bigger than a fixed constant times n. Settled in both directions: true when k is large enough as a function of n, but false…

For an odd prime p, do Sun's normalized trigonometric permanents satisfy s_p < 0 ⇔ p ≡ 5 pmod12 and s'_p < 0 ⇔ p ≡ 7 pmod 8? Exact computation at p = 29 refutes both sign laws.

An n-divisor set contains a multiple of every integer from 1 to n. Umans and Wang proposed, as the arithmetic-progression form of their Strong (α,β)-Divisor Conjecture, that such a progression exists with few terms of bounded magnitude,…

For the Erdős–Pomerance functions F(n) and h_P(n) counting how many consecutive integers are needed to contain a distinct multiple of each integer, respectively prime, up to n, the paper proves F(n) ≥ h_P(n) ≥ nexp((log 2/2 - o(1))log…

Erdos and Graham asked whether a positive-density subset of 1,…,N can avoid having any two distinct elements a,b whose unit fractions average to a unit fraction. It can: there is a constant c>0 such that for all large N some A ⊆ 1,…,N of…

The paper gives counterexamples in dimensions eight and nine to two problems: the Cartesian-product problem posed by Cassels for critical determinants and formulated by Zong for lattice packings, and a question raised by Sarnak, formulated…