All Questions
Tagged with nt.number-theory prime-numbers
315 questions
29
votes
7
answers
7k
views
Asymptotic density of k-almost primes
Let $\pi_k(x)=|\{n\le x:n=p_1p_2\cdots p_k\}|$ be the counting function for the k-almost primes, generalizing $\pi(x)=\pi_1(x)$. A result of Landau is
$$\pi_k(x)\sim\frac{x(\log\log x)^{k-1}}{(k-1)!\...
- 9,114
13
votes
3
answers
1k
views
Bound the error in estimating a relative totient function
Let $n=p_1^{e_1}\cdots p_k^{e_k}$ be an integer with $k$ prime factors. We know that the number of integers less than $n$ and coprime to it is
$$\Phi(n)=n-\sum_i\frac n{p_i}+\sum_{i \lt j}\frac n{...
- 30.1k
11
votes
0
answers
2k
views
Would the following conjectures imply $\lim\inf_{n\to\infty}p_{n+k}-p_{n}=O(k\log k)$?
Assume Goldbach's conjecture. Then for every $n\ge 2$ there exists at least one non-negative integer $r\le n-2$ such that both $n+r$ and $n-r$ are primes. Let's write $r_{0}(n):=\inf\{r\le n-2, (n-r,n+...
- 6,984
60
votes
6
answers
7k
views
Has decidability got something to do with primes?
Note: I have modified the question to make it clearer and more relevant. That makes some of references to the old version no longer hold. I hope the victims won't be furious over this.
Motivation:
...
- 2,824
52
votes
4
answers
17k
views
How hard is it to compute the number of prime factors of a given integer?
I asked a related question on this mathoverflow thread. That question was promptly answered. This is a natural followup question to that one, which I decided to repost since that question is answered.
...
- 2,416
49
votes
4
answers
4k
views
Are there primes of every Hamming weight?
Are there primes of every Hamming weight? That is, for every integer $n \in \mathbb{Z}_{>0}$ does there exist a prime which is the sum of $n$ distinct powers of $2$?
In this case, the Hamming ...
- 593
5
votes
3
answers
2k
views
Goldbach conjecture and other problems in additive combinatorics
The field is also known as additive number theory. I am interested in sums $z=x + y$ where $x \in S, y\in T$, and both $S, T$ are infinite sets of positive integers. For instance:
$S = T$ is the set ...
- 3,098
69
votes
4
answers
14k
views
Is a "non-analytic" proof of Dirichlet's theorem on primes known or possible?
It is well-known that one can prove certain special cases of Dirichlet's theorem by exhibiting an integer polynomial $p(x)$ with the properties that the prime divisors of $\{ p(n) | n \in \mathbb{Z} \}...
- 118k
62
votes
1
answer
14k
views
Is the Green-Tao theorem true for primes within a given arithmetic progression?
Ben Green and Terrence Tao proved that there are arbitrary length arithmetic progressions among the primes.
Now, consider an arithmetic progression with starting term $a$ and common difference $d$. ...
- 3,699
46
votes
4
answers
8k
views
Why could Mertens not prove the prime number theorem?
We know that
$$
\sum_{n \le x}\frac{1}{n\ln n} = \ln\ln x + c_1 + O(1/x)
$$
where $c_1$ is a constant. Again Mertens' theorem says that the primes $p$ satisfy
$$
\sum_{p \le x}\frac{1}{p} = \ln\ln ...
- 5,470
29
votes
6
answers
5k
views
Infinitely many primes of the form $2^n+c$ as $n$ varies?
At the time of writing, question 5191 is closed with the accusation of homework. But I don't have a clue about what is going on in that question (other than part 3) [Edit: Anton's comments at 5191 ...
- 41.4k
11
votes
2
answers
3k
views
least prime in a arithmetic progression
Hello
Here I want to consider the simplest arithmetic progression $n\equiv 1\pmod{q}$ where $q$ is a prime. Is it true that we can find a prime $p\leq q^2$ in this arithmetic progression?
This ...
- 2,508
5
votes
4
answers
2k
views
How do these primes jump?
Update 2017.08.28: I am still looking for references. I have posted a request to https://cs.stackexchange.com/q/79971 which includes some literature references I found which are of interest but still ...
- 13k
19
votes
2
answers
1k
views
Odd-bit primes ratio
Say that a number is an odd-bit number if
the count of 1-bits in its binary representation is odd.
Define an even-bit number analogously.
Thus $541 = 1000011101_2$ is an odd-bit number,
and $523 = ...
- 151k
4
votes
2
answers
973
views
Lower bound for a prime gap occurring infinitely often
In his striking paper of may 2013, Zhang showed the existence of an even integer $g\lt 70,000,000$ such that $g$ is a prime gap occurring infinitely often. What is the best unconditional lower bound ...
- 6,984
2
votes
1
answer
515
views
On comparing two almost injective divisor maps
Edit 2018.08.08 This answer https://mathoverflow.net/a/307881 will be updated to give recent information about S, especially a forthcoming preprint. End Edit 2018.08.08
In an introductory post on ...
- 13k
2
votes
2
answers
489
views
On the integral $I_s =\int_{1}^{\infty} (\pi(x)-Li(x))x^{-s-1} dx$
Define $\pi(x)$ to be the prime counting function and Li(x) the logarithmic integral. Let $I_s$ be defined as above.
Is $I_s$ known to be convergent for any real number $s<1$ ?
user140392
118
votes
5
answers
33k
views
How did Cole factor $2^{67}-1$ in 1903?
I just heard a This American Life episode which recounted the famous anecdote about Frank Nelson Cole factoring $N:=2^{67}-1$ as $193{,}707{,}721\times 761{,}838{,}257{,}287$. There doesn't seem to be ...
- 156k
66
votes
3
answers
6k
views
Chebyshev polynomials of the first kind and primality testing
Can you provide a proof or a counterexample for the claim given below ?
Inspired by Agrawal's conjecture in this paper and by Theorem 4 in this paper I have formulated the following claim :
Let $...
- 2,661
37
votes
2
answers
3k
views
A question on maps from $\mathbb{Z}/p\mathbb{Z}$ to itself
Let $p\geq 3$ be a prime number, and let $u:\mathbb{Z}/p\mathbb{Z}\to \mathbb{Z}/p\mathbb{Z}$ be a map such that, for all $l\in \mathbb{Z}/p\mathbb{Z}$,$l\neq 0$, the map $k\mapsto u(k+l)-u(k)$ is a ...
- 1,730
37
votes
5
answers
3k
views
Happy New Prime Year!
It happens that next year 2011 is prime, while outgoing 2010 is
highly composite in the sense that the number of its distinct prime factors
is 4, maximal possible for a year $< 2310$.
Let me ...
- 13.5k
29
votes
3
answers
4k
views
Constructing prime numbers
The classical proof of the infiniteness of prime numbers is to take the $k$ first prime numbers $p_1,\ldots,p_k$, then to form
$$n_k:=1+p_1\cdots p_k.$$
Then $n_k$ has a prime factor, which is none of ...
- 52.3k
26
votes
4
answers
4k
views
Why so difficult to prove infinitely many restricted primes?
I wondered whether there were an infinite number of
palindromic primes written in binary (11, 101, 111, 10001, 11111, 1001001, 1101011, ...)
and quickly discovered that it is unknown
(OEIS A117697).
...
- 151k
23
votes
2
answers
3k
views
Implications of the disproof of the "climb-to-a-prime" conjecture
Now that James Davis has found a counter example, 13532385396179, to John Conway's climb-to-a-prime conjecture, I would be interested to learn whether this has any implications of interest in number ...
- 188k
22
votes
4
answers
1k
views
Small quotients of smooth numbers
Assume that $N=2^k$, and let $\{n_1, \dots, n_N\}$ denote the set of square-free positive integers which are generated by the first $k$ primes, sorted in increasing order. Question: what is a good ...
- 2,207
19
votes
2
answers
2k
views
Who first proved the generalization of Bertrand's postulate to (2n,3n) and (3n,4n)?
In Wikipedia's page for Bertrand's postulate, it is said that its (2n,3n) version was proved by El Bachraoui in 2006. Seems likely that it was first proved way before than that! Can anyone point to ...
- 2,992
18
votes
1
answer
713
views
Is the p-adic density of the image of a polynomial always rational?
This question was previously posted here on MSE.
Let $P(x)$ be a polynomial with integer coefficients, and let $p$ be a prime number. For $n\in\mathbb N$, let $I_n$ be the number of integers $i\in\{1,\...
- 654
17
votes
3
answers
3k
views
A variant of the Goldbach Conjecture
I am asking if this variant of the weak Goldbach Conjecture is already known.
Let $N$ be an odd number. Does there exist prime numbers $p_1$, $p_2$ and $p_3$ such that $p_1+p_2-p_3=N$? Ideally, can ...
- 901
16
votes
1
answer
4k
views
Order of magnitude of $\sum \frac{1}{\log{p}}$
Question: What is the order of magnitude of the following sum?
$$ \sum_{\substack{p<n\\\text{$p$ prime}}} \frac{1}{\log{p}} $$
Additional information: Since
$$ \sum_{\substack{p<n\\\text{...
- 3,004
16
votes
4
answers
2k
views
Arithmetic progressions without small primes
The following question came up in the discussion at How small can a group with an n-dimensional irreducible complex representation be? :
Is it known that there are infinitely many primes p for which ...
- 156k
12
votes
1
answer
2k
views
Power of primes
$n$ is a natural number $>1$, $\varphi(n)$ denotes the Euler's totient function, $P_n$ is the $n^\text{th}$ prime number and $\sigma(n)$ is the sum of the divisors of $n$. Consider the expression:
$...
- 45
11
votes
2
answers
1k
views
Most dense subset of numbers that avoids arbitrarily long arithmetic progressions
The famous Green-Tao theorem says that there exist arbitrarily long sequences of primes in arithmetic progression.
I am wondering: How dense can a subset $S \subset \mathbb{N}$ be and still avoid
...
- 151k
7
votes
2
answers
883
views
Unexpectedly prime rich cubic polynomial
We got a cubic polynomial which is unexpectedly prime rich.
Let $f(x)=29160 x^3 + 30132 x^2 + 8046 x + 643$ and
$\pi_f(n)$ the number of primes values of $f(x)$ for $x \in [1,n]$.
Let $F(n)=\frac{\...
- 25.4k
7
votes
1
answer
786
views
Are there effective small intervals in which primes are dense?
As mentioned in Terry Tao's comment to this question, it is constructively known
that there are primes between sufficiently large cubes. $\:$ According to wikipedia,
"there exists a constant $\: \...
user5810
4
votes
2
answers
709
views
On the product $\prod_{k=1}^{(p-1)/2}(x-e^{2\pi i k^2/p})$ with $x$ a root of unity
Let $p$ be an odd prime. Dirichlet's class number formula for quadratic fields essentially determines the value of the product $\prod_{k=1}^{(p-1)/2}(1-e^{2\pi ik^2/p})$. I think it is interesting to ...
- 15.6k
2
votes
1
answer
330
views
Primes in shifted geometric sequence
Call a pair of integers $(a,b)$ trivial if it satisfies some simple divisibility condition, like for some prime $p$ we have $p$ divides both $a-1$ and $b+1$, or that $p$ divides both $a$ and $b$. This ...
- 19k
1
vote
3
answers
374
views
Powers of $2$ and the products of initial odd primes
NOTATION: $O_x$ -- the product of all odd primes $\le x$.
E.g. $O_7=3\cdot 5\cdot 7 = 105$.
QUESTION: Are the three ordered pairs $\ (d\ p)=(1\ 3)\ \ (2\ 3)\ \ (4\ 5)\ $ the only solutions of the ...
- 7,500
0
votes
1
answer
662
views
A possible consequence of Dirichlet's theorem about primes in arithmetic progression
EDIT : I copy-paste the beginning of a previous question since Gerry Myerson suggested this question should be self-contained.
"let's consider a composite natural number $n$ greater or equal to $4$. ...
- 6,984
103
votes
4
answers
37k
views
Philosophy behind Yitang Zhang's work on the Twin Primes Conjecture
Yitang Zhang recently published a new attack on the Twin Primes Conjecture. Quoting Andre Granville :
“The big experts in the field had
already tried to make this approach
work,” Granville said....
- 1,063
79
votes
6
answers
11k
views
Does Zhang's theorem generalize to $3$ or more primes in an interval of fixed length?
Let $p_n$ be the $n$-th prime number, as usual:
$p_1 = 2$, $p_2 = 3$, $p_3 = 5$, $p_4 = 7$, etc.
For $k=1,2,3,\ldots$, define
$$
g_k = \liminf_{n \rightarrow \infty} (p_{n+k} - p_n).
$$
Thus the twin ...
- 79.9k
56
votes
1
answer
4k
views
A mysterious connection between primes and $\pi$
The Prime Number Theorem relates primes to the important constant $e$.
Here I report my following surprising discovery which relates primes to $\pi$.
Conjecture (December 15, 2019). Let $s(n)$ be ...
- 15.6k
52
votes
1
answer
6k
views
Are the primes normally distributed? Or is this the Riemann hypothesis?
Forgive my very naive question. I know next to nothing about number theory, but I'm curious about the state of the art on the distribution of primes.
Let $\mathrm{Li}(x)$ be the offset logarithmic ...
- 8,493
34
votes
7
answers
8k
views
Explicit formula for Riemann zeros counting function
I've often seen it stated (in vague terms) that there's a Fourier duality between the set of prime numbers and the set of nontrivial Riemann zeta zeros.
Because there are various explicit formulae ...
- 371
32
votes
1
answer
4k
views
Integers not represented by $ 2 x^2 + x y + 3 y^2 + z^3 - z $
EDIT, 9 March 2014: when I asked this in 2010, I did not have the courage of my convictions, and so did not ask for an if and only if proof, as Kevin Buzzard quite properly pointed out. Such problems ...
- 25.7k
31
votes
4
answers
2k
views
A Collatz-like function that bifurcates on primes
This is likely piling one mystery on another, but ...
I was exploring a function $f(n): \mathbb{N} \mapsto \mathbb{N}$ defined as follows:
$$
f(n) =
\begin{cases}
n^2 & \text{if} \;n \;\text{is ...
- 151k
30
votes
2
answers
4k
views
What is the crucial difference the Maynard/Tao approach and Goldston-Pintz-Yildirim that extends to prime k-tuples with $k>2$
Suppose $m$ is a positive integer. A quantity of interest is
$$
H_m = \liminf_{n\to\infty} \left(p_{n+m} - p_n \right)
$$
The twin prime conjecture, is, of course $H_1 = 2$, the the prime k-tuples ...
- 1,354
29
votes
2
answers
3k
views
Is there a Kolmogorov complexity proof of the prime number theorem?
Lance Fortnow uses Kolmorogov complexity to prove an Almost Prime Number Theorem (https://lance.fortnow.com/papers/files/kaikoura.pdf, after theorem $2.1$): the $i$th prime is at most $i(\log i)^2$. ...
- 13.9k
26
votes
2
answers
2k
views
The prime numbers modulo $k$, are not periodic
Consider the sequence of prime numbers: $2,3,5,7, \cdots$. Now reduce this sequence modulo $k$ for some integer $k > 2$. Show the resulting sequence is not periodic. :
EDIT: As noted in the ...
- 271
26
votes
1
answer
1k
views
What is the status on this conjecture on arithmetic progressions of primes?
The Green-Tao theorem states that for every $n$, there is an arithmetic sequence of length $n$ consisting of primes.
For primes, $p$, let $P(p)$ be the maximum length of an arithmetic progression of ...
- 1,835
26
votes
3
answers
2k
views
For consecutive primes $a\lt b\lt c$, prove that $a+b\ge c$.
For consecutive primes $a\lt b\lt c$, prove that $a+b\ge c$.
I cannot find a counter-example to this. Do we know if this inequality is true? Alternatively, is this some documented problem (solved or ...
- 287