Illustration of the perfect number status of the number 6
Innumber theory, aperfect number is apositive integer that is equal to the sum of its positive properdivisors, that is, divisors excluding the number itself.[1] For instance, 6 has proper divisors 1, 2, and 3, and 1 + 2 + 3 = 6, so 6 is a perfect number. The next perfect number is 28, because 28 has proper divisors 1, 2, 4 , 7, 14, and 1 + 2 + 4 + 7 + 14 = 28.
The first seven perfect numbers are6,28,496,8128, 33550336, 8589869056, and 137438691328.[2]
The sum of proper divisors of a number is called itsaliquot sum, so a perfect number is one that is equal to its aliquot sum. Equivalently, a perfect number is a number that is half the sum of all of its positive divisors; in symbols, where is thesum-of-divisors function.
This definition is ancient, appearing as early asEuclid'sElements (Book VII, Definition 22) where it is calledτέλειος ἀριθμός (perfect,ideal, orcomplete number).Euclid also proved a formation rule (Book IX, Proposition 36) whereby is an even perfect number whenever is a primeof the form for positive integer—what is now called aMersenne prime. Two millennia later,Leonhard Euler proved that all even perfect numbers are of this form.[3] This is known as theEuclid–Euler theorem.
It is not known whether there are any odd perfect numbers, nor whether infinitely many perfect numbers exist.
In about 300 BC Euclid showed that if 2p − 1 is prime then 2p−1(2p − 1) is perfect.The first four perfect numbers were the only ones known to earlyGreek mathematics, and the mathematicianNicomachus noted 8128 as early as around AD 100.[4] In modern language, Nicomachus states without proof thatevery perfect number is of the form where is prime.[5][6] He seems to be unaware thatn itself has to be prime. He also says (wrongly) that the perfect numbers end in 6 or 8 alternately. (The first 5 perfect numbers end with digits 6, 8, 6, 8, 6; but the sixth also ends in 6.)Philo of Alexandria in his first-century book "On the creation" mentions perfect numbers, claiming that the world was created in 6 days and the moon orbits in 28 days because 6 and 28 are perfect. Philo is followed byOrigen,[7] and byDidymus the Blind, who adds the observation that there are only four perfect numbers that are less than 10,000. (Commentary on Genesis 1. 14–19).[8]Augustine of Hippo defines perfect numbers inThe City of God (Book XI, Chapter 30) in the early 5th century AD, repeating the claim that God created the world in 6 days because 6 is the smallest perfect number. The Egyptian mathematicianIsmail ibn Fallūs (1194–1252) mentioned the next three perfect numbers (33,550,336; 8,589,869,056; and 137,438,691,328) and listed a few more which are now known to be incorrect.[9] The first known European mention of the fifth perfect number is a manuscript written between 1456 and 1461 by an unknown mathematician.[10] In 1588, the Italian mathematicianPietro Cataldi identified the sixth (8,589,869,056) and the seventh (137,438,691,328) perfect numbers, and also proved that every perfect number obtained from Euclid's rule ends with a 6 or an 8.[11][12][13]
Euclid proved that is an even perfect number whenever is prime inElements (Book IX, Proposition 36).
For example, the first four perfect numbers are generated by the formula withp aprime number, as follows:
Prime numbers of the form are known asMersenne primes, after the seventeenth-century monkMarin Mersenne, who studiednumber theory and perfect numbers. For to be prime, it is necessary thatp itself be prime. However, not all numbers of the form with a primep are prime; for example,211 − 1 = 2047 = 23 × 89 is not a prime number.[a] In fact, Mersenne primes are very rare: of the approximately 4 million primesp up to 68,874,199, is prime for only 48 of them.[14]
WhileNicomachus had stated (without proof) thatall perfect numbers were of the form where is prime (though he stated this somewhat differently),Ibn al-Haytham (Alhazen) circa AD 1000 was unwilling to go that far, declaring instead (also without proof) that the formula yielded only every even perfect number.[15] It was not until the 18th century thatLeonhard Euler proved that the formula indeed yields all the even perfect numbers. Thus, there is aone-to-one correspondence between even perfect numbers and Mersenne primes; each Mersenne prime generates one even perfect number, and vice versa. This result is often referred to as theEuclid–Euler theorem.
An exhaustive search by theGIMPS distributed computing project has shown that the first 50 even perfect numbers are for
Two higher perfect numbers have also been discovered, namely those for whichp = 82589933 and 136279841. Although it is still possible there may be others within this range, initial but exhaustive tests by GIMPS have revealed no other perfect numbers forp below 138277717. As of October 2024[update], 52 Mersenne primes are known,[16] and therefore 52 even perfect numbers (the largest of which is2136279840 × (2136279841 − 1) with 82,048,640 digits). It isnot known whether there areinfinitely many perfect numbers, nor whether there are infinitely many Mersenne primes.
As well as having the form, each even perfect number is the-thtriangular number (and hence equal to the sum of the integers from 1 to) and the-thhexagonal number. Furthermore, each even perfect number except for 6 is the-thcentered nonagonal number and is equal to the sum of the first odd cubes (odd cubes up to the cube of):
Even perfect numbers (except 6) are of the form
with each resulting triangular numberT7 = 28,T31 = 496,T127 = 8128 (after subtracting 1 from the perfect number and dividing the result by 9) ending in 3 or 5, the sequence starting withT2 = 3,T10 = 55,T42 = 903,T2730 = 3727815, ...[17] It follows that by adding the digits of any even perfect number (except 6), then adding the digits of the resulting number, and repeating this process until a single digit (called thedigital root) is obtained, always produces the number 1. For example, the digital root of 8128 is 1, because8 + 1 + 2 + 8 = 19,1 + 9 = 10, and1 + 0 = 1. This works with all perfect numbers with odd primep and, in fact, withall numbers of the form for odd integer (not necessarily prime)m.
Owing to their form, every even perfect number is represented in binary form asp ones followed byp − 1 zeros; for example:
It is unknown whether any odd perfect numbers exist, though various results have been obtained. In 1496,Jacques Lefèvre stated that Euclid's rule gives all perfect numbers,[18] thus implying that no odd perfect number exists, but Euler himself stated: "Whether ... there are any odd perfect numbers is a most difficult question".[19] More recently,Carl Pomerance has presented aheuristic argument suggesting that indeed no odd perfect number should exist.[20] All perfect numbers are alsoharmonic divisor numbers, and it has been conjectured as well that there are no odd harmonic divisor numbers other than 1.
Any odd perfect numberN must satisfy the following conditions:
N is of the formN ≡ 1 (mod 12) orN ≡ 117 (mod 468) orN ≡ 81 (mod 324).[23]
The largestprime powerpa that dividesN is greater than 1062.[21]
The largest prime factor ofN is greater than 108,[24] and less than[25]
The second largest prime factor is greater than 104,[26] and less than.[27]
The third largest prime factor is greater than 100,[28] and less than[29]
N has at least 101 prime factors and at least 10 distinct prime factors.[21][30] If 3 does not divideN, thenN has at least 12 distinct prime factors.[31]
If allei ≡ 1 (mod 3) or 2 (mod 5), then the smallest prime factor ofN must lie between 108 and 101000.[41]
More generally, if all 2ei+1 have a prime factor in a given finite setS, then the smallest prime factor ofN must be smaller than an effectively computable constant depending only onS.[41]
... a prolonged meditation on the subject has satisfied me that the existence of any one such [odd perfect number]—its escape, so to say, from the complex web of conditions which hem it in on all sides—would be little short of a miracle.
On the other hand, several odd integers come close to being perfect. René Descartes observed that the numberD = 32 ⋅ 72 ⋅ 112 ⋅ 132 ⋅ 22021 = (3⋅1001)2 ⋅ (22⋅1001 − 1) = 198585576189 would be an odd perfect number if only22021 (= 192 ⋅ 61) were a prime number. The odd numbers with this property (they would be perfect if one of their composite factors were prime) are theDescartes numbers. Many of the properties proven about odd perfect numbers also apply to Descartes numbers, and Pace Nielsen has suggested that sufficient study of these numbers may lead to a proof that no odd perfect numbers exist.[49]
All even perfect numbers have a very precise form; odd perfect numbers either do not exist or are rare. There are a number of results on perfect numbers that are actually quite easy to prove but nevertheless superficially impressive; some of them also come underRichard Guy'sstrong law of small numbers:
The only even perfect number of the formn3 + 1 is 28 (Makowski 1962).[50]
28 is also the only even perfect number that is a sum of two positive cubes of integers (Gallardo 2010).[51]
Thereciprocals of the divisors of a perfect numberN must add up to 2 (to get this, take the definition of a perfect number,, and divide both sides byn):
For 6, we have;
For 28, we have, etc.
The number of divisors of a perfect number (whether even or odd) must be even, becauseN cannot be a perfect square.[52]
From these two results it follows that every perfect number is anOre's harmonic number.
The even perfect numbers are nottrapezoidal numbers; that is, they cannot be represented as the difference of two positive non-consecutivetriangular numbers. There are only three types of non-trapezoidal numbers: even perfect numbers, powers of two, and the numbers of the form formed as the product of aFermat prime with a power of two in a similar way to the construction of even perfect numbers from Mersenne primes.[53]
The number of perfect numbers less thann is less than, wherec > 0 is a constant.[54] In fact it is, usinglittle-o notation.[55]
Every even perfect number ends in 6 or 28 in base ten and, with the only exception of 6, ends in 1 in base 9.[56][57] Therefore, in particular thedigital root of every even perfect number other than 6 is 1.
The sum ofproper divisors gives various other kinds of numbers. Numbers where the sum is less than the number itself are calleddeficient, and where it is greater than the number,abundant. These terms, together withperfect itself, come from Greeknumerology. A pair of numbers which are the sum of each other's proper divisors are calledamicable, and larger cycles of numbers are calledsociable. A positive integer such that every smaller positive integer is a sum of distinct divisors of it is apractical number.
Asemiperfect number is a natural number that is equal to the sum of all or some of its proper divisors. A semiperfect number that is equal to the sum of all its proper divisors is a perfect number. Most abundant numbers are also semiperfect; abundant numbers which are not semiperfect are calledweird numbers.
^All factors of are congruent to1mod 2p. For example,211 − 1 = 2047 = 23 × 89, and both 23 and 89 yield a remainder of 1 when divided by 22. Furthermore, wheneverp is aSophie Germain prime—that is,2p + 1 is also prime—and2p + 1 is congruent to 1 or 7 mod 8, then2p + 1 will be a factor of which is the case forp = 11, 23, 83, 131, 179, 191, 239, 251, ...OEIS: A002515.
^Weisstein, Eric W."Perfect Number".mathworld.wolfram.com. Retrieved2025-02-09.Perfect numbers are positive integers n such that n=s(n), where s(n) is the restricted divisor function (i.e., the sum of proper divisors of n), ...
^InIntroduction to Arithmetic, Chapter 16, he says of perfect numbers, "There is a method of producing them, neat and unfailing, which neither passes by any of the perfect numbers nor fails to differentiate any of those that are not such, which is carried out in the following way." He then goes on to explain a procedure which is equivalent to finding atriangular number based on a Mersenne prime.
^Commentary on the Gospel of John 28.1.1–4, with further references in theSources Chrétiennes edition: vol. 385, 58–61.
^Kühnel, Ullrich (1950). "Verschärfung der notwendigen Bedingungen für die Existenz von ungeraden vollkommenen Zahlen".Mathematische Zeitschrift (in German).52:202–211.doi:10.1007/BF02230691.S2CID120754476.
^Konyagin, Sergei; Acquaah, Peter (2012). "On Prime Factors of Odd Perfect Numbers".International Journal of Number Theory.8 (6):1537–1540.doi:10.1142/S1793042112500935.
^Suryanarayana, D. (1963). "On Odd Perfect Numbers II".Proceedings of the American Mathematical Society.14 (6):896–904.doi:10.1090/S0002-9939-1963-0155786-8.
^The Collected Mathematical Papers of James Joseph Sylvester p. 590, tr. from "Sur les nombres dits de Hamilton",Compte Rendu de l'Association Française (Toulouse, 1887), pp. 164–168.
Euclid,Elements, Book IX, Proposition 36. SeeD.E. Joyce's website for a translation and discussion of this proposition and its proof.
Kanold, H.-J. (1941). "Untersuchungen über ungerade vollkommene Zahlen".Journal für die Reine und Angewandte Mathematik.1941 (183):98–109.doi:10.1515/crll.1941.183.98.S2CID115983363.
Steuerwald, R. "Verschärfung einer notwendigen Bedingung für die Existenz einer ungeraden vollkommenen Zahl".S.-B. Bayer. Akad. Wiss.1937:69–72.
Riele, H.J.J. "Perfect Numbers and Aliquot Sequences" in H.W. Lenstra and R. Tijdeman (eds.):Computational Methods in Number Theory, Vol. 154, Amsterdam, 1982, pp. 141–157.
Riesel, H.Prime Numbers and Computer Methods for Factorisation, Birkhauser, 1985.