V.

Adamchik 1

Integer Divisibility
Victor Adamchik

Fall of 2005

Lecture 1 (out of seven)

Plan
1. Basics of divisibility
2. Prime numbers
3. Perfect numbers

Notations
- set of integers
- set of positive integers (also , also )
- set of nonnegative integers (also 0 )
- logical AND
- logical OR
- exist (existential quantifier)
! - exist exactly one (unique existential quantifier)
- any (universal quantifier)
x - integer part of x (or the floor function)

Basics of divisibility
In this chapter, we will discuss the divisibility of integers, the set of integers is denoted by . We
will give a few detailed proofs of some of the basic facts about divisibility. Most of the properties
are quite obvious, but it is still a good idea to know how to prove them.

Definition.
An integer b 0 divides another integer a iff k that a k b.
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We also say that b is a factor (or divisor) of a.

One frequently writes b a to indicate that b divides a.

Example. 3 12 but 5 12

Exercise. Let a and b be positive integers and a b. How many positive integers not
exceeding a are divisible by b? In other words, find such c that b c a and b c

Solution. All numbers divisible by b are in the form b k, where k . They are positive and do
not exceed a,

a
0 b k a or 0 k b

Therefore, there are floor( ab ) or a

b
such integers

Theorem 1. For all integers a, b, c

(1) 1 a, 1 a and a 0.
(2) Reflexivity: a a.
(3) Transitivity: a b b c a c.
(4) Not-quite antisymmetry: a b b a a b a b.
(5) if a b a c a n b m c for any integers n and m

Proof.

(1) and (2) follow immediately

a a a 1 a a

(3) Given b x a and c y b.

Then c y b y x a x y a, so a | c

(4) Given b x a and a y b.

Then a xy a a 1 xy 0,

and therefore x y 1 (there are no zero-divisors in the integers). It follows that either y x 1
or y x 1. But x 1 implies a b, and x 1 implies b a.
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(5) Given b x a and c y a.

Consider n b m c

nb mc xan y am a xn ym a nb mc

It follows

a nb mc

Application of Theorem 2.
Do there exist integers x, y, and z such that 6 x 9y 15 z 107?

No, they don't, here is the proof by contradiction.

Since 3, 6 and 9 has a common divisor 3 than 3 must divide its linear combination
3 6x 9y 15 z 3 107 which is wrong.

Question. How many divisors does a positive integer have?

Here is a picture of all divisors of integers in range [1, 500]

20

15

10

100 200 300 400 500

Primes
Observation. Every positive integer has at least two divisors: 1 and itself

Definition. Integer p 1 is called a prime if its only positive divisors are 1 and p.
Otherwise it is called a composite.
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The number 1 is a special case which is considered neither prime nor composite

The number 2 is also special, it is the only even prime.

Theorem. There are an infinite number of primes

Proof. (by contradiction)

Assume otherwise, say, p1 , …, pn is a complete list of all primes.

Define

p p1 p2 … pn 1.

Since this number p is larger than all the pi , it cannot be prime.

But then, there is some prime that divides p. Since our list is supposedly complete that prime must
be, say, pr .

We have that pr p

pr p
pr p p1 p2 … pn pr 1
pr p1 p2 … pn

But then pr 1.

A contradiction.
QED - end of proof ("quod erat demonstrandum").

How would you find (or generate) primes?

Sieve of Eratosthenes:
(Greek astronomer, 195BC)

Write down the integers from 2 to the highest number n you wish to include in the table. Cross out
all numbers 2 which are divisible by 2. Cross out all numbers 3 which are divisible by 3,
then by 5 and so on. Continue until you have crossed out all numbers divisible by n .
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Why do we stop at n ?

Because the next number to cross must be n since we cross all numbers with divisors n .

Goldbach Conjecture (1742)

Prime numbers satisfy many strange and wonderful properties.

Observation:

6 3 3
7 5 2
8 5 3
9 7 2
10 7 3
18 11 7

What about 117 ? Can you represent it as sum of two primes?

Goldbach made the conjecture that every odd number > 5 is equal to the sum of three primes.
Euler replied that Goldbach's conjecture was equivalent to the statement that every even number >
2 is equal to the sum of two primes.

p1 p2 2n

It is known to be true for for numbers through 6 1016 (checked numerically in 2003)

Mersenne numbers
For some years, people believed that if p is prime, then so is 2 p 1:

22 1, 23 1, 25 1, ...

This is not true for all primes, for example

211 1 2047 23 89

Mersenne Conjecture (15 century, by French monk Marin Mersenne) 2 p 1 is prime for
p 2, 3, 5, 7, 13, 17, 19, 31, 67, 127 , 257 and composite for all other positive integers p < 257.
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It took a few of centuries to show that the conjecture was wrong. Only in 1947 the range up to 258
was checked! It turned out that

a) 267 1 and 2257 1 are not primes

b) Mersenne missed p 61, 89, 107.

Definition: When 2 p 1 is prime it is said to be a Mersenne prime.

The largest known Mersenne prime is (2005):

225,964,951 1

Theorem. If 2 p 1 is prime, then p is prime.

Proof. By contradiction - we assume that 2 p 1 is prime, but p is not prime. Let p be a composite
number, p r s. Consider the following polynomial

xr s
1

It can be written as

xr s 1 xs 1 xs r 1 xs r 2 ... xs 1

which is easily proved by expanding the right hand side.

Therefore, if p is composite then x p 1 is composite, so is 2 p 1, since it's divisible by 2s 1.
Contradiction to our assumption that 2 p 1 is prime. QED.

Perfect numbers
Definition. An positive integer is a perfect number if it equals the sum of its proper divisors (not
including itself).

The first few perfect numbers are

6=1+2+3
28 = 1 + 2 + 4 + 7 + 14
496 = 1 + 2 + 4 + 8 + 16 + 31 + 62 + 124 + 248
8128 = ...
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Question. What is the next perfect number? It seems it should not be a problem to answer this by
writing Java or C program.

Question. Are they all even?

This question is much much harder.... It is not known if any odd perfect numbers exist.

All even perfect number are in the form

6=1+2+3 =2*3

28 = 1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + 5 + 6 +7 = 4 * 7

496 = 1 + 2 + 3 +... + 31 = 16 * 31

8128 = 1 + 2 + 3 +... + 127 = 64 * 127

Generally,

2n 1
2n 1 , when n is prime

This is a relation between the perfect and the Mersenne primes. So the search for Mersenne primes
is also the search for even perfect numbers!