An aliquot part
a of a positive integer
n > 1 is a proper positive divider of this integer
n.
If
s(n) is the sum of the aliquot parts of
n,
the aliquot sequence of
n is
s(n), s2(n) = s(s(n)), s3(n), ..., sk(n), ...
Conjecture. A conjecture whose origin goes up in Catalan in 1888 is that the continuation ends up giving
- a prime number (and thus 1 after this prime number)
- a perfect number n such as s(n)=n (examples : 6, 28 ...)
- a pair of sociable numbers m, n such as s(m)=n and s(n)=m
(example : 220 and 284)
Example. The dividers of 12 are 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 12 and s(12) = 1+2+3+4+6=16,
successively,
s2(12)= s(s(12)) = s(16)=1+2+4+8=15,
s3(12)=s(15)=1+3+5=9,
s4(12)=s(9)=1+3=4,
s5(12)=s(4)=1+2=3,
s6(12)=s(3)=1.