A sequence of positive integers satisfies the condition for all positive integers where is the number of positive integer divisors of . Determine whether two consecutive terms of this sequence can be perfect squares.
, 2012
Solution
Solution. There are no two such consecutive terms.
Assume that , where are positive integers. Then
Therefore . The last inequality gives , which is impossible since the sequence is strictly increasing and .
We used the inequality which follows immediately from the fact that the positive integer divisors of can be paired off (with the possible exception of ) with one in each pair less than .
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