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I checked some relations between primes, here $1<n<10^5$ and $p_n$ is the $n$th prime.

$a) p_n^{1/3} - p_{n-1}^{1/3}<1/2$

$b) p_n^{1/n} - p_{n-1}^{1/n}<1/n $

$c) (\log p_n)^{1/2} - (\log p_{n-1})^{1/2} < 1/4$

$d) (\log p_n)^{1/n} - (\log p_{n-1})^{1/n} < 1/n^X, n\geq7,X=2$

In $d)$ I tried to find a larger $X$, but I failed.

Maybe some will fail for a larger $n$. Are any of these know to be true? Also, what can be deduced from they?

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  • $\begingroup$ a) is true for sufficiently large $n$, by sufficient strengthenings of Bertrand's postulate. E.g., it is known that $[x, x+x^{0.525}]$ contains a prime for all sufficiently large $x$. Evaluating at $x=p_{n-1}$ gives $p_n^{1/3}-p_{n-1}^{1/3}\to 0$. $\endgroup$ Feb 6, 2023 at 3:54

1 Answer 1

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The first three statements are true for $n$ sufficiently large. The fourth statement is equivalent to a very strong bound on prime gaps (which has a chance to hold but is right on the edge and hopeless to prove or disprove at present), while any $X>2$ produces a false bound for all $n>n_0(X)$.

Regarding a), a classical result of Ingham (1937) shows that $$p_n^{1/3} - p_{n-1}^{1/3}<\frac{p_n-p_{n-1}}{3p_{n-1}^{2/3}}=o(1).$$

Regarding b), the Prime Number Theorem gives that $$p_n^{1/n} - p_{n-1}^{1/n}\sim\frac{p_n-p_{n-1}}{n p_{n-1}}=o\left(\frac{1}{n}\right).$$

Regarding c), Bertrand's postulate shows for $p_n>7$ that $$(\log p_n)^{1/2}-(\log p_{n-1})^{1/2}<\frac{\log p_n-\log p_{n-1}}{2(\log p_{n-1})^{1/2}}<\frac{\log 2}{2(\log p_{n-1})^{1/2}}<\frac{1}{4}.$$ In fact the left-hand side tends to zero (as $n\to\infty$).

Regarding d), the Prime Number Theorem gives that $$(\log p_n)^{1/n}-(\log p_{n-1})^{1/n}\sim\frac{p_n-p_{n-1}}{n p_n\log p_n}\sim\frac{p_n-p_{n-1}}{n^2\log^2 n}.$$ Under some standard (but bold) conjectures the right-hand side stays below $2/n^2$, and perhaps it is even $o(1/n^2)$. So statement d) restricted to large $n$ is equivalent to some expected but hopelessly difficult upper bound on prime gaps. On the other hand, the above calculation shows that d) fails for any $X>2$ and $n>n_0(X)$.

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