A conjecture of De Koninck regarding particular square values of the sum of divisors function (Q2637449)

Let \(\sigma(n)\) be the sum of the divisors of \(n\) and \(\gamma(n)=\prod_{p\mid n} p\) be the algebraic radical of \(n\); that is, the product of all the distinct prime factors of \(n\). De Koninck conjectured that \(n=1,~1782\) are the only solutions to the equation \(\sigma(n)=\gamma(n)^2\). Some results concerning the structure of a putative \(n\) different from \(1\) and \(1782\) satisfying the above equation were given before in work of Broughan, De Koninck, Kátai and the reviewer in [\textit{K. A. Broughan} et al., J. Integer Seq. 15, No. 7, Article 12.7.5, 12 p. (2012; Zbl 1291.11006)]. The present paper continues research on such potential \(n\). It follows from the results of this paper that each such \(n\) must have one prime factor appearing to exponent 1 in its factorization, perhaps another prime appearing to an exponent congruent to 1 modulo 4, and all other prime factors of \(n\) must have even exponent. It is also shown that such an \(n\) cannot be 4th power free and that if the prime appearing to exponent 1 is congruent to 3 modulo 8 then it cannot be less than 43. Finally, it is shown that the number of such \(n\leq x\) is of order at most \(x^{1/6+\varepsilon}\) for large \(x\) and any \(\varepsilon>0\). This improves the exponent \(1/4+\varepsilon\) obtained previously on the same counting function by Broughan et al. (loc. cit.).