What is the sum of all possible integer values of where is the Euler's totient function?
Details and assumptions
The Euler's totient function is the number of positive integers less than or equal to that are coprime to
This section requires Javascript.
You are seeing this because something didn't load right. We suggest you, (a) try
refreshing the page, (b) enabling javascript if it is disabled on your browser and,
finally, (c)
loading the
non-javascript version of this page
. We're sorry about the hassle.
This solution is wrong. I have not reviewed it as yet.
We will use a well known formula for ϕ ( n ) . If n = p 1 a 1 ⋅ . . . ⋅ p k a k , then ϕ ( n ) = ( p 1 − 1 ) p 1 a 1 − 1 ⋅ . . . ⋅ ( p k − 1 ) p k a k − 1 = n ⋅ p 1 p 1 − 1 ⋅ . . . ⋅ p k p k − 1
If n = 2 a , a ≥ 1 , then the ϕ ( n ) = 2 a − 1 . So ϕ ( ϕ ( ϕ ( n ) ) ) n can be 8 (if a ≥ 3 ), 4 , 2 , or 1 .
For n = p 1 a 1 ⋅ . . . ⋅ p k a k , we denote the order a i of p i in n by o r d p i n .
Note that for every odd prime p i the number p i − 1 is even. So o r d 2 ( ϕ ( n ) ) ≥ o r d 2 n − 1 + # ( o d d p r i m e f a c t o r s o f n )
If n is divisible by four or more distinct odd primes, o r d 2 ϕ ( n ) ≥ o r d 2 n + 3 . So o r d 2 ϕ ( ϕ ( ϕ ( n ) ) ) ≥ o r d 2 ϕ ( ϕ ( n ) ) − 1 ≥ o r d 2 ϕ ( n ) − 2 ≥ o r d 2 n + 1 Thus, for ϕ ( ϕ ( ϕ ( n ) ) ) n to be integer, the number of odd primes in n is at most 3 . Moreover, if n has three odd prime factors, then all the above inequality must be equalities. In particular, ϕ ( n ) must be a power of 2 . So all odd prime factors of n are of the form 2 i + 1 for some i . Since the prime factors are distinct, o r d 2 ϕ ( n ) − o r d 2 ( n ) ≥ 1 + 2 + 3 , so again we get a contradiction.
Suppose n = 2 a p b q c , where p < q are odd primes and b and c are positive. The same argument as above shows that o r d 2 ( p − 1 ) + o r d 2 ( q − 1 ) ≤ 3 . Also if o r d 2 ( p − 1 ) + o r d 2 ( q − 1 ) = 3 , then ϕ ( n ) must be a power of 2 . So in this sub-case we must have n = 2 a ⋅ 3 ⋅ 5 , with a ≥ 1 , and the ratio is 1 5 . If o r d 2 ( p − 1 ) + o r d 2 ( q − 1 ) = 2 , then p ≡ q ≡ 3 ( m o d 4 ) . We will prove that in this case ϕ ( n ) can only be of the form 2 i , or 2 i ⋅ 3 . Indeed, otherwise o r d 2 ϕ ( ϕ ( ϕ ( n ) ) ) ≥ o r d 2 ϕ ( n ) , because an other odd factor of ϕ ( n ) will either create an odd prime factor for ϕ ( ϕ ( n ) ) or extra power of 2 in ϕ ( ϕ ( n ) ) . Clearly, the only possible case here is n = 2 a ⋅ 3 b ⋅ 7 , which gives the ratio of 2 1 .
Now suppose that n = 2 a ⋅ p b , where p is an odd prime. First of all, if b ≥ 2 , then the prime p must be 3 . In this case b can be anything, and we get ratio 2 7 if b ≥ 3 and 1 8 or 9 , depending on a , if b = 2 .
Suppose now that b = 1 . If ϕ ( n ) is a power of 2 , then p − 1 can only be 2 , 4 , 8 , thus p = 3 or p = 5 . These give ratios 1 2 , 6 , 3 ; 1 0 and 5 (depending on a ). If ϕ ( n ) is not a power of 2 then, clearly, it can only be of the form 2 a ⋅ 3 , 2 a ⋅ 3 2 , or 2 a ⋅ 5 . This means that p can only be 7 , 1 1 and 1 3 . This gives ratios 1 4 , 7 , 1 1 , and 1 3 .
Putting it all together, the possible integer ratios are 8 , 4 , 2 , 1 , 1 5 , 2 1 , 2 7 , 1 8 , 9 , 1 2 , 6 , 3 , 1 0 , 5 , 1 4 , 7 , 1 1 , 1 3 . They add up to ( 1 + 2 + . . . + 1 5 ) + 1 8 + 2 1 + 2 7 = 1 7 1