Polignac's conjecture
In number theory, Polignac's conjecture was made by Alphonse de Polignac in 1849 and states:
- For any positive even number n, there are infinitely many prime gaps of size n. In other words: There are infinitely many cases of two consecutive prime numbers with difference n.[1]
The conjecture has not yet been proven or disproven for a given value of n. In 2013 an important breakthrough was made by Zhang Yitang who proved that there are infinitely many prime gaps of size n for some value of n < 70,000,000.[2][3] Later that year, James Maynard announced a related breakthrough which proved that there are infinitely many prime gaps of some size less than or equal to 600.[4] As of April 14, 2014, one year after Zhang's announcement, according to the Polymath project wiki, n has been reduced to 246.[5] Further, assuming the Elliott–Halberstam conjecture and its generalized form, the Polymath project wiki states that n has been reduced to 12 and 6, respectively.[6]
For n = 2, it is the twin prime conjecture. For n = 4, it says there are infinitely many cousin primes (p, p + 4). For n = 6, it says there are infinitely many sexy primes (p, p + 6) with no prime between p and p + 6.
Dickson's conjecture generalizes Polignac's conjecture to cover all prime constellations.
Conjectured density
Let for even n be the number of prime gaps of size n below x.
The first Hardy–Littlewood conjecture says the asymptotic density is of form
where Cn is a function of n, and means that the quotient of two expressions tends to 1 as x approaches infinity.[7]
C2 is the twin prime constant
where the product extends over all prime numbers p ≥ 3.
Cn is C2 multiplied by a number which depends on the odd prime factors q of n:
For example, C4 = C2 and C6 = 2C2. Twin primes have the same conjectured density as cousin primes, and half that of sexy primes.
Note that each odd prime factor q of n increases the conjectured density compared to twin primes by a factor of . A heuristic argument follows. It relies on some unproven assumptions so the conclusion remains a conjecture. The chance of a random odd prime q dividing either a or a + 2 in a random "potential" twin prime pair is , since q divides 1 of the q numbers from a to a + q − 1. Now assume q divides n and consider a potential prime pair (a, a + n). q divides a + n if and only if q divides a, and the chance of that is . The chance of (a, a + n) being free from the factor q, divided by the chance that (a, a + 2) is free from q, then becomes divided by . This equals which transfers to the conjectured prime density. In the case of n = 6, the argument simplifies to: If a is a random number then 3 has chance 2/3 of dividing a or a + 2, but only chance 1/3 of dividing a and a + 6, so the latter pair is conjectured twice as likely to both be prime.
Notes
- ↑ Tattersall, J.J. (2005), Elementary number theory in nine chapters, Cambridge University Press, ISBN 978-0-521-85014-8, p. 112
- ↑ Zhang, Yitang (2014). "Bounded gaps between primes". Annals of Mathematics 179 (3): 1121–1174. doi:10.4007/annals.2014.179.3.7. MR 3171761. Zbl 06302171. (subscription required)
- ↑ Klarreich, Erica (19 May 2013). "Unheralded Mathematician Bridges the Prime Gap". Simons Science News. Retrieved 21 May 2013.
- ↑ Augereau, Benjamin (15 January 2013). "An old mathematical puzzle soon to be unraveled?". Phys.org. Retrieved 10 February 2013.
- ↑ "Bounded gaps between primes". Polymath. Retrieved 2014-03-27.
- ↑ "Bounded gaps between primes". Polymath. Retrieved 2014-02-21.
- ↑ Bateman, Paul T.; Diamond, Harold G. (2004), Analytic Number Theory, World Scientific, p. 313, ISBN 981-256-080-7, Zbl 1074.11001.
References
- Alphonse de Polignac, Recherches nouvelles sur les nombres premiers. Comptes Rendus des Séances de l'Académie des Sciences (1849)
- Weisstein, Eric W., "de Polignac's Conjecture", MathWorld.
- Weisstein, Eric W., "k-Tuple Conjecture", MathWorld.