In [an introductory post on Grimm Machines][1], I give a narrative to suggest why the following link between a given algorithm S
and Grimm's conjecture should be studied.  In this post, I give a summary (as suggested by W.H.) as well
as new information and a new technical question. 

Let a map $f$ on natural numbers greater than 1 be called a divisor map if for every $n$ one has $f(n)$ divides $n$. This post looks at divisor maps which take on prime values.  For such maps $f(2)=f(4)=2$, so $f$ is not injective, not even when restricted to the interval $[2,4]$.  

This post looks at maximal prime-free intervals, i.e. for each pair of consecutive primes $p$ and $q$, let $I=(p,q)$.  If for every such $I$, $f$ restricted to $I$ is injective, then I call $f$ an *injective divisor map*, and Grimm's conjecture effectively asks if such a map exists. (Technically, Grimm asked about subintervals of such $I$ as well.  By Bertrand's postulate or other results, a map for $(p,q)$ implies one for $[p,q]$ and possibly larger intervals.)  

The algorithm S has been described in detail elsewhere.  Briefly, consider at the start $n=2$ and the natural numbers $\geq n$ having a stone on each prime $p$ labeled with that prime, then find $n+kp \gt n$ least without a stone and move that stone there; now repeat with $n+1$.  Each number gets paired with exactly one stone, and the map from numbers to the labels gives a divisor map $S(n)$, which is almost an injective divisor map.  The other post discusses where $S(n)$ is known not to be injective, and how to modify it to be injective on the known portion.

A different map is given by $L(n)$, the largest prime divisor of $n$.  Below $4*10^8$ it has over three hundred failures of injectivity; each failed interval with one exception (with smooth $n,L(n)$ pairs
 265635,17, 264639,41, 265650,23, 265680, 41, and 265696,23) has precisely one point of failure, and the largest number of smooth $n$ in a failed interval which contains another multiple of $L(n)$ in that interval is 7, giving much room for fixing the map. Further, most of the intervals yield to an obvious Case II fix.  I counted those intervals where a potential conflict might arise (is $L(m)$ a non-largest prime factor of $n$ for smooth $m$ and $n$ in the interval) and found less than twenty such intervals.  Since most such failures are resolved by $S(n)$, I did not bother to find resolutions for these potential conflicts.

Of course more references are wanted, and questions regarding S in the other post can be asked about $L$ here.  However, I point out a few specific questions about $L$ and the statistics gathered.

> Why does $L$ do a much worse job than S in providing a Grimm mapping?  Can we estimate how much worse?

> Notice the embarrassing example (523,541) has a Case II (even Case I) fix now.  Are all the failures
fixable by case II?

> Suppose we just look for improvements. Can we find a natural
definition of a divisor map which (for the first $10^9$ intervals)
does better than $L$?  Better than S?  

A combination (pick $L$ or S, which ever gives an injective map) leaves only 6 intervals all less than 1,000,000
in doubt, and each of those 6 is easily fixed, most of them by case I.  However, this is not as natural a method as I would hope.

After browsing through papers of Erdos, Laisham and Murty, and Zhang,
I found some generalizations of Grimm's conjecture being considered.
I recommend the Laisham and Murty paper for an overview, where is mentioned
that Grimm's conjecture implies the existence of a prime between consecutive squares.
Grimm's conjecture along with a conjecture on smooth numbers implies a bound
on prime gaps eventually strictly smaller than $p^\epsilon$ for every fixed
real $\epsilon \gt 0$.

The literature shows connections to smooth numbers, prime gaps, number
of factors of binomial coefficients and so on, and has a connection to
another MathOverflow question http://mathoverflow.net/questions/182331


 - http://arxiv.org/abs/1306.0765  Laisham, Murty:
   Grimm's Conjecture and Smooth Numbers

 - http://arxiv.org/abs/0811.0966 Shaohua Zhang :
   A Refinement of the function g(m) on Grimm conjecture

Gerhard "Matchmaker Find Me A Find" Paseman, 2016.08.23.


  [1]: http://mathoverflow.net/questions/248042