Related papers: Reasoning about Primes (I)
Numbers (positive integers) are the most fundamental creatures of the human mind and the foundation to the scientific understanding of nature. Some mathematicians have suspected a link between prime numbers and secrets of creation.…
While the prime numbers have been subject to mathematical inquiry since the ancient Greeks, the accumulated effort of understanding these numbers has - as Marcus du Sautoy recently phrased it - 'not revealed the origins of what makes the…
The Twin Prime conjecture states that there are infinitely many pairs of distinct primes which differ by $2$. Until recently this conjecture had seemed to be far out of reach with current techniques. However, in April 2013, Yitang Zhang…
A set of integers greater than 1 is primitive if no element divides another. Erd\H{o}s proved in 1935 that the sum of $1/(n \log n)$ for $n$ running over a primitive set $A$ is universally bounded over all choices for $A$. In 1988 he asked…
We report a rigorous theory to show the origin of the unexpected periodic behavior seen in the consecutive differences between prime numbers. We also check numerically our findings to ensure that they hold for finite sequences of primes,…
For any fixed $k\geq 2$, we prove that every sufficiently large integer can be expressed as the sum of a $k$th power of a prime and a number with at most $M(k)=6k$ prime factors. For sufficiently large $k$ we also show that one can take…
In this paper, a simple explanation for the Goldbach Conjecture is given. We have shown that the probability of violating the conjecture not only for the prime numbers, but also for any subset of natural numbers whose distribution is…
Recently we have introduced a novel characterisation of the distribution of twin primes that consists of three essential elements. These are: that the twins are most naturally viewed as a subsequence of the primes themselves, that the…
The divisor function $\sigma(n)$ sums the divisors of $n$. We call $n$ abundant when $\sigma(n) - n > n$ and perfect when $\sigma(n) - n = n$. I recently introduced the recursive divisor function $a(n)$, the recursive analog of the divisor…
Selberg identified the "parity" barrior, that sieves alone cannot distinguish between integers having an even or odd number of factors. We give here a short and self-contained demonstration of parity breaking using bilinear forms, modeled…
We prove an explicit analogue of Legendre's conjecture for almost primes. Namely, for every integer $n \geq 1$, the interval $(n^2,(n+1)^2)$ contains an integer having at most $3$ prime factors, counted with multiplicity. This improves the…
Cyclic proof theory breaks tradition by allowing certain infinite proofs: those that can be represented by a finite graph, while satisfying a soundness condition. We reconcile cyclic proofs with traditional finite proofs: we extend abstract…
Goldbach`s Conjecture, "every even number greater than 2 can be expressed as the sum of two primes" is renamed Goldbach`s Rule for it can not be otherwise. The conjecture is proven by showing that the existence of prime pairs adding to any…
The goal of this paper is to describe an elementary combinatorial heuristic that predicts Hardy and Littlewood's extended Goldbach's conjecture. We examine common features of other heuristics in additive prime number theory, such as…
We use a second-order analogy $\mathsf{PRA}^2$ of $\mathsf{PRA}$ to investigate the proof-theoretic strength of theorems in countable algebra, analysis, and infinite combinatorics. We compare our results with similar results in the…
The usual product $m\cdot n$ on $\mathbb{Z}$ can be viewed as the sum of $n$ terms of an arithmetic progression whose first term is $a_{1}=m-n+1$ and whose difference is $d=2$. Generalizing this idea, we define new similar product mappings,…
We describe recurring patterns of numbers that survive each wave of the Sieve of Eratosthenes, including symmetries, uniform subdivisions, and quantifiable, predictive cycles that characterize their distribution across the number line. We…
We report on a recent conjecture by Gisin on a restriction of physical processes in sets of finite information numbers (FIN) and further analyze the entropic constraint associated with the proposed algorithm. In the course, we provide a…
Here we demonstrate a sieve for analysing primes and their composites, using equivalence classes based on the modulo 6 return value as applied to the Natural numbers. Five features of this 'Hexile' sieve are reviewed. The first aspect, is…
The world of primes has many gaps between evidence and theorems. Here, we review Legendre's conjecture on primes between consecutive squares and recent progress on the weaker question of primes between consecutive larger powers. Assuming…