English

Dirichlet's theorem and Jacobsthal's function

Number Theory 2017-08-21 v1

Abstract

If aa and dd are relatively prime, we refer to the set of integers congruent to aa mod dd as an `eligible' arithmetic progression. A theorem of Dirichlet says that every eligible arithmetic progression contains infinitely many primes; the theorem follows from the assertion that every eligible arithmetic progression contains at least one prime. The Jacobsthal function g(n)g(n) is defined as the smallest positive integer such that every sequence of g(n)g(n) consecutive integers contains an integer relatively prime to nn. In this paper, we show by a combinatorial argument that every eligible arithmetic progression with d76d\le76 contains at least one prime, and we show that certain plausible bounds on the Jacobsthal function of primorials would imply that every eligible arithmetic progression contains at least one prime. That is, certain plausible bounds on the Jacobsthal function would lead to an elementary proof of Dirichlet's theorem.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1708.05415,
  title  = {Dirichlet's theorem and Jacobsthal's function},
  author = {Idris Mercer},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1708.05415},
  year   = {2017}
}
R2 v1 2026-06-22T21:17:30.685Z