On a problem of Erdős involving the largest prime factor of \(n\) (Q1780919)

For \(n\geq 2\), let \(P(n)\) denote the greatest prime factor of \(n\), and \(N(x) =\#\{n: 2\leq n\leq x\), \(n\nmid P(n)!\}\). In 1991, Paul Erdős posed the problem of showing that \(N(x)= o(x)\) as \(x\to\infty\), and this was established by I. Kastanas in 1994. Since then other authors have found better estimates for \(N(x)\) resulting in an asymptotic formula in [Smarandache Notions J. 10, No. 1--3, 81--86 (1999; Zbl 1077.11505)] by \textit{K. Ford} (although the constant there is incorrect as the present author points out). The paper under review builds on earlier work of J.-M. De Koninck and N. Doyon, K. Ford, the author and others to obtain a sharper estimate and a more precise asymptotic formula for\( N(x)\) than those obtained previously. These take the form \[ \begin{multlined} N(x)= x\exp\left(-\sqrt{2\log x\log 2 x}\left(1+ O\left({\log_2 x\over\log_2 x}\right)\right)\right)\\ =x\left(2+ O\left(\sqrt{{\log_2 x\over\log x}}\right)\right) \int^x_2 \rho\left({\log x\log t}\right)\,{\log t\over t^2}\,dt.\end{multlined} \] The proofs utilize results concerning the well known function \(\Psi(x,y)=\#\{n\leq x: P(n)\leq\}\) that involve the Dickman function \(\rho(n)\). The above problem is related to that of estimating the Smarandache function \(S(n)= \min\{k: n|k!\}\), so \(P(n)\leq S(n)\leq n\). Let \(r> 0\); the author estimates the sum \(\sum_{2\leq n\leq x}(S(n))^{-r}\) and obtains an asymptotic expansion for the sum \(\sum_{2\leq n\leq x}(S(n))^r\) with a fixed number \(J\) of terms, thus improving the result with \(J= 1\) by \textit{S. R. Finch} in [Smarandache Notions J. 11, No. 1--3, 140--141 (2000)]. For both sums, the terms with \(S(n)\neq P(n)\) contribute to the error term.