What’s the greatest common divisor of $\phi(n)$ and $n$, where $\phi(n)$ is the Euler Totient Function

gcd-and-lcmnumber theorytotient-function

Question: Is there any formula for finding the $\operatorname{gcd}(\phi(n), n)$?

I'm not sure if this is a dumb question, but I couldn't find one myself and not on Wikipedia.

EDIT: To clarify what I'm trying to do:

I'm trying to solve another problem, where I have to plug the greatest common divisor into the Totient function again, and it would be fun if there was an expression for that so it maybe would simplify.

Best Answer

There's no known closed expression about what you're asking.

However we can do a little bit better than that if we know the factorization of the integer $ n \ = \ p_1^{k_1}...p_r^{k_r}$

$\phi(n) \ = \ p_1^{k_1}...p_r^{k_r}(\frac{p_1 - 1}{p_1})...(\frac{p_r - 1}{p_r}) \ = \ p_1^{k_1-1}...p_1^{k_r-1}(p_1-1)...(p_r-1)$

$\gcd(\phi(n), n)\ =\ \gcd (p_1^{k_1-1}...p_1^{k_r-1}(p_1-1)...(p_r-1),\ p_1^{k_1}...p_r^{k_r})\ =\\ p_1^{k_1-1}...p_1^{k_r-1}\gcd((p_1-1)...(p_r-1), p_1...p_r)$

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