English

On Selberg's approximation to the twin prime problem

Number Theory 2015-04-24 v2

Abstract

In his Classical approximation to the Twin prime problem, Selberg proved that for xx sufficiently large, there is an n(x,2x)n \in (x,2x) such that 2Ω(n)+2Ω(n+2)λ2^{\Omega(n)}+2^{\Omega(n+2)} \leq \lambda with λ=14\lambda=14, where Ω(n)\Omega(n) is the number of prime factors of nn counted with multiplicity. This enabled him to show that for infinitely many nn, n(n+2)n(n+2) has atmost 55 prime factors, with one having atmost 22 and the other having atmost 33 prime factors. By adopting Selberg's approach and using a refinement suggested by Selberg, we improve this value of λ\lambda to about λ=12.59\lambda=12.59.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1504.04347,
  title  = {On Selberg's approximation to the twin prime problem},
  author = {R. Balasubramanian and Priyamvad Srivastav},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1504.04347},
  year   = {2015}
}

Comments

34 pages, sage program code included; some minor errors corrected

R2 v1 2026-06-22T09:17:32.733Z