English

Fermat's Last Theorem Implies Euclid's Infinitude of Primes

Number Theory 2023-05-03 v2 Combinatorics

Abstract

We show that Fermat's last theorem and a combinatorial theorem of Schur on monochromatic solutions of a+b=ca+b=c implies that there exist infinitely many primes. In particular, for small exponents such as n=3n=3 or 44 this gives a new proof of Euclid's theorem, as in this case Fermat's last theorem has a proof that does not use the infinitude of primes. Similarly, we discuss implications of Roth's theorem on arithmetic progressions, Hindman's theorem, and infinite Ramsey theory towards Euclid's theorem. As a consequence we see that Euclid's Theorem is a necessary condition for many interesting (seemingly unrelated) results in mathematics.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2009.06722,
  title  = {Fermat's Last Theorem Implies Euclid's Infinitude of Primes},
  author = {Christian Elsholtz},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2009.06722},
  year   = {2023}
}