Prime signature

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The prime signature of a number is the sequence of exponents of its prime factorisation sorted in order of size.

For example, all prime numbers have a prime signature of {1}, the squares of primes have a prime signature of {2}, the products of 2 distinct primes have a prime signature of {1,1} and the products of a square of a prime and a different prime (e.g. 12,18,20,... ) have a prime signature of {2,1}.

The number of divisors that a number has is determined by its prime signature as follows: If you add one to each exponent and multiply them together you get the number of divisors including the number itself and 1. For example, 20 has prime signature {2,1} and so the number of divisors is 3x2=6. They are 1,2,4,5,10 and 20.

The smallest number of each prime signature is a product of primorials. The first few are (sequence A025487 in OEIS):

1, 2, 4, 6, 8, 12, 16, 24, 30, 32, 36, 48, 60, 64, 72, 96, 120, 128, 144, 180, 192, 210, 216, ...

[edit] Numbers with same prime signature

Signature Numbers OEIS ID Description
{1} 2, 3, 5, 7, 11, ... A000040 prime numbers
{2} 4, 9, 25, 49, 121, ... A001248 squares of prime numbers
{1,1} 6, 10, 14, 15, 21, ... A006881 two distinct prime divisors (square-free semiprimes)
{3} 8, 27, 125, 343, ... A030078 cubes of prime numbers
{2,1} 12, 18, 20, 28, ... A054753 squares of primes times another prime
{4} 16, 81, 625, 2401, ... A030514 fourth powers of prime numbers
{3,1} 24, 40, 54, 56, ... A065036 cubes of primes times another prime
{1,1,1} 30, 42, 66, 70, ... A007304 three distinct prime divisors (sphenic numbers)
{5} 32, 243, 3125, ... A050997 fifth powers of primes
{2,2} 36, 100, 196, 225, ... A085986 squares of square-free semiprimes

[edit] References

Eric W. Weisstein, Prime Signature at MathWorld.