Centered hexagonal number

In mathematics and combinatorics, a centered hexagonal number, or centered 'hexagon number', is a centered figurate number that represents a hexagon with a dot in the center and all other dots surrounding the center dot in a hexagonal lattice. The following figures illustrate this arrangement for the first four centered hexagonal numbers:
Centered hexagonal numbers should not be confused with cornered hexagonal numbers, which are figurate numbers in which the associated hexagons share a vertex.
The sequence of hexagonal numbers starts out as follows :

Formula

Image:Centered hexagonal = 1 + 6triangular.svg|thumb|right|Dissection of hexagonal number into six triangles with a remainder of one. The triangles can be re-assembled pairwise to give three parallelograms of dots each.
The th centered hexagonal number is given by the formula
Expressing the formula as
shows that the centered hexagonal number for is 1 more than 6 times the th triangular number.
In the opposite direction, the index corresponding to the centered hexagonal number can be calculated using the formula
This can be used as a test for whether a number is centered hexagonal: it will be if and only if the above expression is an integer.

Recurrence and generating function

The centered hexagonal numbers satisfy the recurrence relation
From this we can calculate the generating function. The generating function satisfies
The latter term is the Taylor series of, so we get
and end up at

Properties

In base 10 one can notice that the hexagonal numbers' rightmost digits follow the pattern 1–7–9–7–1.
This follows from the last digit of the triangle numbers which repeat 0-1-3-1-0 when taken modulo 5.
In base 6 the rightmost digit is always 1: 1₆, 11₆, 31₆, 101₆, 141₆, 231₆, 331₆, 441₆...
This follows from the fact that every centered hexagonal number modulo 6 equals 1.
The sum of the first centered hexagonal numbers is. That is, centered hexagonal pyramidal numbers and cubes are the same numbers, but they represent different shapes. Viewed from the opposite perspective, centered hexagonal numbers are differences of two consecutive cubes, so that the centered hexagonal numbers are the gnomon of the cubes. In particular, prime centered hexagonal numbers are cuban primes.
The difference between and the th centered hexagonal number is a number of the form, while the difference between and the th centered hexagonal number is a pronic number.

Applications

Many segmented mirror reflecting telescopes have primary mirrors comprising a centered hexagonal number of segments to simplify the control system. Some examples:

Telescope	Number of segments	Number missing	Total	n-th centered hexagonal number
Giant Magellan Telescope	7	0	7	2
James Webb Space Telescope	18	1	19	3
Gran Telescopio Canarias	36	1	37	4
Guido Horn d'Arturo's prototype	61	0	61	5
Southern African Large Telescope	91	0	91	6