English

On nonconvex constellations among primes I

Number Theory 2026-04-21 v3

Abstract

Extending our work on the kk-tuple conjecture, we apply those methods to the Engelsma counterexamples (narrow constellations) of length J=459J=459 and span s=3242|s|=3242. We track the evolution of these 5858 counterexamples from inadmissible driving terms starting in the cycle of gaps G(11#){\mathcal G}(11^\#) up through their first appearance in G(113#){\mathcal G}(113^\#). We continue developing primorial coordinates for each admissible instance through a breadth-first exhaustive search through G(211#){\mathcal G}(211^\#), at which point we need to develop strategies for depth-first searches for an instance that would survive Eratosthenes sieve. Our calculations show that {\em none} of the (459,3242)(459,3242)-counterexamples occur before 9.7E739.7\,E73. For each of the 5858 Engelsma (459,3242)(459,3242)-counterexamples we calculate its asymptotic relative population, among other constellations of length J=459J=459, and we study how these counterexamples work. In this version (9 April) we have completed the calculations in Table 6 to include all of the terms in primorial expansion for the smallest initial generator and corrected a typographical error on page 6.

Cite

@article{arxiv.2603.25896,
  title  = {On nonconvex constellations among primes I},
  author = {Fred B. Holt},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2603.25896},
  year   = {2026}
}

Comments

16 pages, 7 figures

R2 v1 2026-07-01T11:39:55.201Z