English

Efficient prime counting and the Chebyshev primes

Number Theory 2013-03-19 v3

Abstract

The function ϵ(x)=\mboxli(x)π(x)\epsilon(x)=\mbox{li}(x)-\pi(x) is known to be positive up to the (very large) Skewes' number. Besides, according to Robin's work, the functions ϵθ(x)=\mboxli[θ(x)]π(x)\epsilon_{\theta}(x)=\mbox{li}[\theta(x)]-\pi(x) and ϵψ(x)=\mboxli[ψ(x)]π(x)\epsilon_{\psi}(x)=\mbox{li}[\psi(x)]-\pi(x) are positive if and only if Riemann hypothesis (RH) holds (the first and the second Chebyshev function are θ(x)=pxlogp\theta(x)=\sum_{p \le x} \log p and ψ(x)=n=1xΛ(n)\psi(x)=\sum_{n=1}^x \Lambda(n), respectively, \mboxli(x)\mbox{li}(x) is the logarithmic integral, μ(n)\mu(n) and Λ(n)\Lambda(n) are the M\"obius and the Von Mangoldt functions). Negative jumps in the above functions ϵ\epsilon, ϵθ\epsilon_{\theta} and ϵψ\epsilon_{\psi} may potentially occur only at x+1Px+1 \in \mathcal{P} (the set of primes). One denotes jp=\mboxli(p)\mboxli(p1)j_p=\mbox{li}(p)-\mbox{li}(p-1) and one investigates the jumps jpj_p, jθ(p)j_{\theta(p)} and jψ(p)j_{\psi(p)}. In particular, jp<1j_p<1, and jθ(p)>1j_{\theta(p)}>1 for p<1011p<10^{11}. Besides, jψ(p)<1j_{\psi(p)}<1 for any odd p\mboxChp \in \mathcal{\mbox{Ch}}, an infinite set of so-called {\it Chebyshev primes } with partial list {109,113,139,181,197,199,241,271,281,283,293,313,317,443,449,461,463,}\{109, 113, 139, 181, 197, 199, 241, 271, 281, 283, 293, 313, 317, 443, 449, 461, 463, \ldots\}. We establish a few properties of the set \mboxCh\mathcal{\mbox{Ch}}, give accurate approximations of the jump jψ(p)j_{\psi(p)} and relate the derivation of \mboxCh\mbox{Ch} to the explicit Mangoldt formula for ψ(x)\psi(x). In the context of RH, we introduce the so-called {\it Riemann primes} as champions of the function ψ(pnl)pnl\psi(p_n^l)-p_n^l (or of the function θ(pnl)pnl\theta(p_n^l)-p_n^l ). Finally, we find a {\it good} prime counting function SN(x)=n=1Nμ(n)n\mboxli[ψ(x)1/n]S_N(x)=\sum_{n=1}^N \frac{\mu(n)}{n}\mbox{li}[\psi(x)^{1/n}], that is found to be much better than the standard Riemann prime counting function.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1109.6489,
  title  = {Efficient prime counting and the Chebyshev primes},
  author = {Michel Planat and Patrick Solé},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1109.6489},
  year   = {2013}
}

Comments

15 pages section 2.2 added, new sequences added, Fig. 2 and 3 are new

R2 v1 2026-06-21T19:12:28.780Z