Related papers: Chebyshev's conjecture and the prime number race
Let $\pi(x;q,a)$ denote the number of primes up to $x$ that are congruent to $a$ modulo $q$. A prime number race, for fixed modulus $q$ and residue classes $a_1, \ldots, a_r$, investigates the system of inequalities $\pi(x;q,a_1) >…
Let $\pi_{q,a}(x)$ denote the number of primes $\le x$ in the progression $a$ modulo $q$. We study subtle inequities in these functions, with $q$ fixed and variable $a$ (sometimes called 'prime race problems'). It is known unconditionally…
This is a survey article on prime number races. Chebyshev noticed in the first half of the nineteenth century that for any given value of x, there always seem to be more primes of the form 4n+3 less than x then there are of the form 4n+1.…
Chebyshev observed in a letter to Fuss that there tends to be more primes of the form $4n+3$ than of the form $4n+1$. The general phenomenon, which is referred to as Chebyshev's bias, is that primes tend to be biased in their distribution…
In this paper we first establish new explicit estimates for Chebyshev's $\vartheta$-function. Applying these new estimates, we derive new upper and lower bounds for some functions defined over the prime numbers, for instance the prime…
In this paper we establish a number of new estimates concerning the prime counting function \pi(x), which improve the estimates proved in the literature. As an application, we deduce a new result concerning the existence of prime numbers in…
We investigate the distribution of the function $\omega(n)$, the number of distinct prime divisors of $n$, in residue classes modulo $q$ for natural numbers $q$ greater than 2. In particular we ask `prime number races' style questions, as…
We generalize current known distribution results on Shanks--R\'enyi prime number races to the case where arbitrarily many residue classes are involved. Our method handles both the classical case that goes back to Chebyshev and function…
Rubinstein and Sarnak have shown, conditional on the Riemann hypothesis (RH) and the linear independence hypothesis (LI) on the non-real zeros of $\zeta(s)$, that the set of real numbers $x\ge2$ for which $\pi(x)>$ li$(x)$ has a logarithmic…
In this paper we establish explicit upper and lower bounds for the ratio of the arithmetic and geometric means of the prime numbers, which improve the current best estimates. Further, we prove several conjectures related to this ration…
We investigate the race between prime numbers in many residue classes modulo $q$, assuming the standard conjectures GRH and LI. Among our results we exhibit, for the first time, prime races modulo $q$ with $n$ competitor classes where the…
We continue our examination the effects of certain hypothetical configurations of zeros of Dirichlet $L$-functions lying off the critical line ("barriers") on the relative magnitude of the functions $\pi_{q,a}(x)$. Here $\pi_{q,a}(x)$ is…
In this paper we discuss the generalizations of the concept of Chebyshev's bias from two perspectives. First we give a general framework for the study of prime number races and Chebyshev's bias attached to general $L$-functions satisfying…
We show, for any $q\ge 3$ and distinct reduced residues $a,b \pmod q$, the existence of certain hypothetical sets of zeros of Dirichlet $L$-functions lying off the critical line implies that $\pi(x;q,a)<\pi(x;q,b)$ for a set of real $x$ of…
In this paper we present some observations about the well-known Goldbach conjecture. In particular we list and interpret some numerical results which allow us to formulate a relation between prime numbers and even integers. We can also…
We study arithmetic functions $\Phi(x;d,a)$, called prime running functions, whose value at $x$ sums the gaps between primes $p_k \equiv a\ (\text{mod}\ d)$ below $x$ and the next following prime $p_{k+1}$, up to $x$. (The following prime…
We continue to investigate the race between prime numbers in many residue classes modulo $q$, assuming the standard conjectures GRH and LI. We show that provided $n/\log q \rightarrow \infty$ as $q \rightarrow \infty$, we can find $n$…
We note an interesting and under-expressed fact from Chebyshev's initial bounding for the prime counting function, $\pi(x) := \# \{p \leq x : p \text{ prime}\},$ based upon a selection of fixed coefficients $d\in D$ to show $\psi(x) \asymp…
In this paper we give effective estimates for some classical arithmetic functions defined over prime numbers. First we find the smallest real number $x_0$ so that some inequality involving Chebyshev's $\vartheta$-function holds for every $x…
We study generalized Skewes' numbers, which are the locations of the first sign change between two comparable prime counting functions. In the context of the race between quadratic residues and quadratic nonresidues, we construct sequences…