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Let be a Positive Integer and
the number of (not necessarily distinct) Prime Factors of
(with
). Let
be the number of Positive Integers
with an Odd number of
Prime factors, and
the number of Positive Integers
with an Even number of
Prime factors. Pólya conjectured that
The conjecture was made in 1919, and disproven by Haselgrove (1958) using a method due to Ingham (1942). Lehman
(1960) found the first explicit counterexample,
, and the smallest counterexample
was
found by Tanaka (1980). The first
for which
are
, 4, 6, 10, 16, 26, 40, 96, 586,
906150256, ... (Tanaka 1980, Sloane's A028488). It is unknown if
changes sign infinitely often (Tanaka 1980).
See also Andrica's Conjecture, Liouville Function, Prime Factors
References
Haselgrove, C. B. ``A Disproof of a Conjecture of Pólya.'' Mathematika 5, 141-145, 1958.
Ingham, A. E. ``On Two Conjectures in the Theory of Numbers.'' Amer. J. Math. 64, 313-319, 1942.
Lehman, R. S. ``On Liouville's Function.'' Math. Comput. 14, 311-320, 1960.
Sloane, N. J. A. Sequence
A028488
in ``The On-Line Version of the Encyclopedia of Integer Sequences.''
http://www.research.att.com/~njas/sequences/eisonline.html.
Tanaka, M. ``A Numerical Investigation on Cumulative Sum of the Liouville Function'' [sic]. Tokyo J. Math. 3, 187-189, 1980.