OFFSET
1,3
COMMENTS
a(n) >= 1, for n >= 2; equality only when n = 2^(p-1) for any prime p. More generally, if p is prime(m), q any prime, and n=p^(q-1) then tau(n) = q, and the only numbers k < m such that tau(k)|tau(n) are 1 and q. Every prime < p contributes 1 to the count of a(n), and so does 1 itself, therefore a(n) = m-1+1 = m; see formula. Since for a given m, this holds for all primes q, it follows that every m > 0 appears in the sequence infinitely many times.
LINKS
David A. Corneth, Table of n, a(n) for n = 1..10001
FORMULA
a(prime(m)^(q-1)) = m for m >= 1 and any prime q.
EXAMPLE
a(1) = 0 because there is no k < 1 such that tau(k)|tau(1).
a(2) = 1, since there is only one instance of tau(k)|tau(2), namely k=1.
a(3) = 2, since there are two instances of tau(k)|tau(3), namely k=1 and k=2.
a(4) = 3, since there is only one instance of tau(k)|tau(4), namely k=1, etc.
MATHEMATICA
With[{s = DivisorSigma[0, Range[72]]}, Array[Count[Mod[#2, s[[Range[#1 - 1]]]], 0] & @@ {#, s[[#]]} &, Length[s] - 1, 2]] (* Michael De Vlieger, Sep 09 2021 *)
PROG
(PARI) first(n) = {my(l = List(), res = vector(n)); for(i = 1, n, nd = numdiv(i); if(nd > #l, for(i = #l + 1, nd, listput(l, 0) ) ); d = divisors(nd); for(j = 1, #d, res[i] += l[d[j]] ); l[nd]++; ); res } \\ David A. Corneth, Sep 03 2021
CROSSREFS
KEYWORD
nonn
AUTHOR
David James Sycamore, Aug 31 2021
STATUS
approved