Polite Dirichlet Series

The politeness of a positive integer is the number of ways it can be written as the sum of two or more consecutive positive integers. Let p ( n ) p(n) denote the politeness of n n . For instance, p ( 15 ) = 3 p(15)=3 , because 15 = 1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + 5 = 4 + 5 + 6 = 7 + 8 15=1+2+3+4+5=4+5+6=7+8 . Now, let S = n = 1 p ( n ) n 2 . \displaystyle S= \sum_{n=1}^{\infty} \frac{p(n)}{n^2}. If S S can be expressed as π a b π c d \dfrac{\pi^a - b\pi^c}{d} , where a , b , c , d a,b,c,d are positive integers, find a + b + c + d a+b+c+d .


The answer is 62.

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1 solution

Mat Met
Feb 18, 2018

Let n n be a positive integer. First of all, consider the following result, a proof of which is added below: politeness of n = num. of odd factors of n greater than 1 \text{politeness of} \; n \; = \; \text{num. of odd factors of} \; n \; \text{greater than}\; 1 Hence, we can rewrite the series as S = n = 1 d n , d > 1 d is odd \displaystyle S= \sum_{n=1}^{\infty} \sum_{ \begin{aligned} & d | n, \; d > 1 \\ & d \; \text{is odd} \end{aligned}} 1 n 2 \dfrac{1}{n^2} and we see that each term 1 n 2 \dfrac{1}{n^2} appears exactly as many times as the number of odd divisors of n n that are greater than 1 1 .

Now, let T T be the infinite series that arises from the multiplication: ( 1 1 2 + 1 2 2 + 1 3 2 + 1 4 2 + . . . ) ( 1 3 2 + 1 5 2 + 1 7 2 + 1 9 2 + . . . ) \left ( \dfrac{1}{1^2}+ \dfrac{1}{2^2}+ \dfrac{1}{3^2}+ \dfrac{1}{4^2}+...\right) \left( \dfrac{1}{3^2}+ \dfrac{1}{5^2}+ \dfrac{1}{7^2}+\dfrac{1}{9^2}+... \right) We observe that each term of T T is the reciprocal of a square and that, for each n n positive integer, 1 n 2 \dfrac{1}{n^2} appears as a term of T T uniquely under all possible forms of the type 1 ( n / k ) 2 1 k 2 \dfrac{1}{(n/k)^2} \dfrac{1}{k^2} , where k > 1 k>1 is odd and k n k|n , one time for each value of k k . And so, in the sum, the frequency of 1 n 2 \dfrac{1}{n^2} equals the number of odd divisors of n n greater than 1 1 . Therefore, T = S T=S .

Then, knowing that

n = 1 1 n 2 = π 2 6 n = 1 1 ( 2 n 1 ) 2 = n = 1 1 n 2 n = 1 1 ( 2 n ) 2 = π 2 8 \displaystyle \begin{aligned} & \sum_{n=1}^{\infty} \dfrac{1}{n^2} = \dfrac{\pi^2}{6} \\ & \sum_{n=1}^{\infty} \dfrac{1}{(2n-1)^2} = \sum_{n=1}^{\infty} \dfrac{1}{n^2} - \sum_{n=1}^{\infty} \dfrac{1}{(2n)^2} = \dfrac{\pi^2}{8} \end{aligned}

we find S = π 2 6 ( π 2 8 1 ) = π 4 8 π 2 48 S = \dfrac{\pi^2}{6} \left( \dfrac{\pi^2}{8} -1\right) = \dfrac{\pi^4 - 8\pi^2 }{48}

so that the answer is 4 + 8 + 2 + 48 = 62 4+8+2+48= \boxed{62}


Characterization of politeness: An interesting proof of the statement above, which links the politeness of n n to its odd divisors, can be found in this Wikipedia page . The following, instead, can be an alternative one:

We recover from this solution the definition of odd-polite and even-polite number, along with the propositions ( i ) (i) and ( i i ) (ii) (the first five lines). We will show the existence of a bijection between odd divisors of n n greather than one and representations of n n as a sum of at least two consecutive positive integers.

Let d > 1 d>1 be an odd integer such that d n d|n . If the R H S RHS of ( i ) (i) is satisfied by d d (i.e. n d d + 1 2 \color{#3D99F6} \dfrac{n}{d} \ge \dfrac{d+1}{2} ), then n n is an odd-polite number and, precisely, it is the sum of all d \color{#3D99F6} d consecutive positive integers starting from n d d 1 2 \color{#3D99F6} \dfrac{n}{d}-\dfrac{d-1}{2} . On the other hand, suppose that the R H S RHS of ( i ) (i) is not satisfied, i.e. we suppose n d < d + 1 2 \color{#D61F06} \dfrac{n}{d} < \dfrac{d+1}{2} . Now, if we consider that n = ( 2 h + 1 ) x n=(2h+1)x , where 2 h + 1 = d 2h+1=d and x 1 x \ge 1 , we get x < h + 1 x<h+1 , and so x h x \le h . However, n = 2 x h + x n=2xh+x implies that n 2 x x n \equiv_{2x} x , while the condition x h x \le h is equivalent to ( 2 h + 1 ) x x 2 x x \frac{(2h+1)x-x}{2x} \ge x and consequently to n x 2 x x \frac{n-x}{2x} \ge x . Hence, it follows that the R H S RHS of ( i i ) (ii) is satisfied by the even integer p = 2 x = 2 n d > 1 p=2x=2\dfrac{n}{d}>1 . So, n n is an even-polite integer and, precisely, it is the sum of all 2 n d \color{#D61F06} 2\dfrac{n}{d} consecutive positive integers starting from d + 1 2 n d \color{#D61F06} \dfrac{d+1}{2} - \dfrac{n}{d} .

To sum up:

d > 1 d odd , d n n = { n d d 1 2 + . . . d , if n d d + 1 2 d + 1 2 n d + . . . 2 n d , if n d < d + 1 2 d>1 \,\land \, d \; \text{odd}, \; d|n \; \implies n= \begin{cases} \left| \color{#3D99F6} \dfrac{n}{d}-\dfrac{d-1}{2}\color{#333333}+...\right|_{\color{#3D99F6} d}\; \; , \, \color{#333333} \text{if} \; \color{#3D99F6} \dfrac{n}{d} \ge \dfrac{d+1}{2} \\ \left| \color{#D61F06} \dfrac{d+1}{2} - \dfrac{n}{d}\color{#333333}+...\right|_{\color{#D61F06} 2\frac{n}{d}} \color{#333333}, \, \text{if} \; \color{#D61F06} \dfrac{n}{d} < \dfrac{d+1}{2} \end{cases} \; (where n + . . . k |n+...|_k means the sum of k k consecutive integers starting from n n ).

Conversely, let n n be a polite number. If n n is the sum of an odd number d > 1 d>1 of consecutive positive integers, then n n is an odd-polite number, and so ( i ) d n (i) \implies d|n . If, instead, n n is the sum of an even number 2 x > 1 2x>1 of consecutive positive integers, then n n is an even-polite number, and hence, as we have seen above, ( i i ) n 2 x x h x (ii) \implies n\equiv_{2x} x \, \land \, h \ge x , so that n = ( 2 h + 1 ) x 2 h + 1 > 1 n=(2h+1)x \, \land \, 2h+1>1 . In both cases, we associated an odd divisor of n n greater than 1 1 to the generic polite representation of n n .

The association laws described in the last two paragraphs form a bijection between the sets { polite representations of n } \{ \text{polite representations of} \; n \} and { d Z > 1 : d odd d n } \{d \in \mathbb{Z_{>1}}: \, d \; \text{odd} \, \land \, d|n\} . Hence, p ( n ) = { d Z > 1 : d odd d n } p(n) = \Bigl|\{d \in \mathbb{Z_{>1}}: \, d \; \text{odd} \, \land \, d|n \}\Bigr| .

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