The abundance of an integer is defined to be , where is the divisor sum function . What is the average abundance of the naturals? That is to say, what is
If the answer is of the form with integers and then find .
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This is a classic problem, anyhow we want to use the identity that n σ ( n ) = d ∣ n ∑ d − 1 The proof is left as an exercise to the reader.
Now the sum is just N ≥ n ≥ 1 ∑ d ∣ n ∑ d − 1 = N ≥ d ≥ 1 ∑ d − 1 ⌊ d N ⌋ We used the fact that each d appears ⌊ d N ⌋ , i.e it divides that many n between 1 and N . Notice that d N ≥ ⌊ d N ⌋ ≥ d N − 1 Hence the limit is N → ∞ lim N 1 N ≥ d ≥ 1 ∑ d − 1 d N ≥ N → ∞ lim N 1 N ≥ d ≥ 1 ∑ d − 1 ⌊ d N ⌋ ≥ N → ∞ lim N 1 N ≥ d ≥ 1 ∑ d − 1 ( d N − 1 ) Clearly both sides converge to ζ ( 2 ) , so the limit is just 6 π 2