Related papers: On functions taking only prime values
Let $d\ge4$ and $c\in(-d,d)$ be relatively prime integers. We show that for any sufficiently large integer $n$ (in particular $n>24310$ suffices for $4\le d\le 36$), the smallest prime $p\equiv c\pmod d$ with $p\ge(2dn-c)/(d-1)$ is the…
We show that if p is an odd prime then $$\sum_{k=0}^{p-1}E_kE_{p-1-k}=1 (mod p)$$ and $$\sum_{k=0}^{p-3}E_kE_{p-3-k}=(-1)^{(p-1)/2}2E_{p-3} (mod p),$$ where E_0,E_1,E_2,... are Euler numbers. Moreover, we prove that for any positive integer…
In this paper we study mixed sums of primes and linear recurrences. We show that if m=2(mod 4) and m+1 is a prime then $(m^{2^n-1}-1)/(m-1)\not=m^n+p^a$ for any n=3,4,... and prime power p^a. We also prove that if a>1 is an integer, u_0=0,…
Let $p_n$ denote the $n$-th prime. For any $m\geq 1$, there exist infinitely many $n$ such that $p_{n}-p_{n-m}\leq C_m$ for some large constant $C_m>0$, and $$p_{n+1}-p_n\geq \frac{c_m\log n\log\log n\log\log\log\log n}{\log\log\log n}, $$…
We study values of k for which the interval (kn,(k+1)n) contains a prime for every n>1. We prove that the list of such integers k includes k=1,2,3,5,9,14, and no others, at least for k<=50,000,000. For every known k of this list, we give a…
For $x>0$ let $\pi(x)$ denote the number of primes not exceeding $x$. For integers $a$ and $m>0$, we determine when there is an integer $n>1$ with $\pi(n)=(n+a)/m$. In particular, we show that for any integers $m>2$ and $a\le\lceil…
For $n=1,2,3,\ldots$ let $S_n$ be the sum of the first $n$ primes. We mainly show that the sequence $a_n=\root n\of{S_n/n}\ (n=1,2,3,\ldots)$ is strictly decreasing, and moreover the sequence $a_{n+1}/a_n\ (n=10,11,\ldots)$ is strictly…
We pose 100 new conjectures on representations involving primes or related things, which might interest number theorists and stimulate further research. Below are five typical examples: (i) For any positive integer $n$, there exists…
Let $n,k\in\mathbb{N}$ and let $p_{n}$ denote the $n$th prime number. We define $p_{n}^{(k)}$ recursively as $p_{n}^{(1)}:=p_{n}$ and $p_{n}^{(k)}=p_{p_{n}^{(k-1)}}$, that is, $p_{n}^{(k)}$ is the $p_{n}^{(k-1)}$th prime. In this note we…
For $x\ge0$ let $\pi(x)$ be the number of primes not exceeding $x$. The asymptotic behaviors of the prime-counting function $\pi(x)$ and the $n$-th prime $p_n$ have been studied intensively in analytic number theory. Surprisingly, we find…
Let p(n, k) denote the number of partitions of n into parts less than or equal to k. We show several properties of this function modulo 2. First, we prove that for fixed positive integers k and m, p(n,k) is periodic modulo m. Using this, we…
Given a positive integer $n\ge 2$, let $D(n)$ denote the smallest positive integer $m$ such that $a^3+a(1\le a\le n)$ are pairwise distinct modulo $m^2$. A conjecture of Z.-W. Sun states that $D(n)=3^k$, where $3^k$ is the least power of…
For n=1,2,3,... let p_n be the n-th prime. We mainly show that p_n>n+sum_{k=1}^n p_k/k for all n>124, and sum_{k=1}^n kp_k<n^2p_n/3 for all n>30.
We prove that there is a small but fixed positive integer e such that for every prime larger than a fixed integer, every subset S of the integers modulo p which satisfies |2S|<(2+e)|S| and 2(|2S|)-2|S|+2 < p is contained in an arithmetic…
In this paper we show that for every positive integer $n$ there exists a prime number in the interval $[n,9(n+3)/8]$. Based on this result, we prove that if $a$ is an integer greater than 1, then for every integer $n>14.4a$ there are at…
Let $n$ be a positive integer and $f(x) := x^{2^n}+1$. In this paper, we study orders of primes dividing products of the form $P_{m,n}:=f(1)f(2)\cdots f(m)$. We prove that if $m > \max\{10^{12},4^{n+1}\}$, then there exists a prime divisor…
Let n be a positive odd integer and let p>n+1 be a prime. We mainly derive the following congruence: $$\sum_{0<i_1<...<i_n<p}(i_1/3)(-1)^{i_1}/(i_1...i_n)=0 (mod p).$$
Let $p_n$ be $n$th prime, and let $(S_n)_{n=1}^\infty:=(S_n)$ be the sequence of the sums of the first $2n$ consecutive primes, that is, $S_n=\sum_{k=1}^{2n}p_k$ with $n=1,2,\ldots$. Heuristic arguments supported by the corresponding…
Let n be a non-null positive integer and $d(n)$ is the number of positive divisors of n, called the divisor function. Of course, $d(n) \leq n$. $d(n) = 1$ if and only if $n = 1$. For $n > 2$ we have $d(n) \geq 2$ and in this paper we try to…
Let $p$ be a prime. We define $S(p)$ the smallest number $k$ such that every positive integer is a sum of at most $k$ squares of integers that are not divisible by $p$. In this article, we prove that $S(2)=10$, $S(3)=6$, $S(5)=5$, and…