E058: Divisor-count record highs

Preview figure for E058

Tags: number-theory, quantitative-exploration, visualization, arithmetic-functions, divisor-function, bounds See: Valid Tags.

Highlights

  • Track record highs of \(\tau(n)\) as \(n\) grows.

  • Inspect factorizations of record-holders (many small primes with decreasing exponents).

Goal

Make the record phenomenon behind highly composite numbers tangible.

Background (quick refresher)

Research question

How do record values of \(\tau(n)\) grow, and what structure do record-holders share?

Method

  • Compute \(\tau(n)\) up to \(N\) and track record positions.

  • Plot record curve; list factorizations of top records.

How to run

  • make run EXP=e058

  • uv run python -m mathxlab.experiments.e058

Outputs

This experiment follows the standard output contract:

  • out/e058/figures/ — generated figures (PNG)

  • out/e058/report.md — short narrative report

  • out/e058/manifest.json — snapshot metadata for the gallery

Published run snapshot

If this experiment is included in the docs gallery, include the published snapshot (report + params).

  • n_max: 300000

  • max τ(n) in range: 180 at n=277200

Figure:

  • fig_01_tau_records.png

params.json (snapshot)
{
  "n_max": 300000
}

References

See Ramanujan [1915], Tenenbaum [2015].