English

The reverse Goldbach problem and a refined Zsiflaw--Legeis theorem

Number Theory 2026-05-22 v1

Abstract

We prove new results on the additive theory of reversed primes p\overleftarrow{p}; that is, primes pp which are written backwards in a fixed base b2b\geq 2. In particular, we study a variant of Goldbach's conjecture, looking at representations of integers as the sum of primes and reversed primes. We show that: (1) Every large odd integer is the sum of a prime and two reversed primes (N=p1+p2+p3N=p_1+\overleftarrow{p_2}+\overleftarrow{p_3}). (2) Every large odd integer is the sum of two primes and a reversed prime (N=p1+p2+p3N=p_1+p_2+\overleftarrow{p_3}). (3) Almost all even integers are the sum of a prime and a reversed prime (N=p1+p2N=p_1+\overleftarrow{p_2}). (4) All large integers are the sum of a reversed prime and a square-free number (N=p+ηN=\overleftarrow{p}+\eta, μ2(η)=1\mu^2(\eta)=1). To obtain our results, along with associated asymptotics, we apply the Hardy--Littlewood circle method and a novel refinement of the ``Zsiflaw--Legeis" theorem on the distribution of reversed primes in arithmetic progressions. Notably, our variant of the Zsiflaw--Legeis theorem does not require one to fix the digit length unlike previous versions.

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Cite

@article{arxiv.2605.21876,
  title  = {The reverse Goldbach problem and a refined Zsiflaw--Legeis theorem},
  author = {Michael Harm and Daniel R. Johnston},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2605.21876},
  year   = {2026}
}

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34 pages