The proof of the last theorem of the last version is incorrect, because the fluctuations were treated too smoothly. We could only replace it with a weaker result
The Cramér-Granville conjecture is an upper bound on prime gaps, $g_n = p_{n+1} - p_n < \cCramer \, \log^2 p_n$ for some constant $\cCramer \geq 1$. Using a formula of Selberg, we first prove the weaker summed version: $\sum_{n=1}^N g_n < \sum_{n=1}^N \log^2 p_n$. In the remainder of the paper we investigate which properties of the fluctuations $\fluc (x) = π(x) - \Li(x)$ would imply the Cramér-Granville conjecture is true and present two such properties, one of which assumes the Riemann Hypothesis; however we are unable to prove these properties are indeed satisfied. We argue that the conjecture is related to the enormity of the Skewes number.
We discuss recent advances on weak forms of the Prime $k$-tuple Conjecture, and its role in proving new estimates for the existence of small gaps between primes and the existence of large gaps between primes.
We implement the Maynard-Tao method of detecting primes in tuples to investigate small gaps between primes in arithmetic progressions, with bounds that are uniform over a range of moduli.
We prove a modification as well as an improvement of a result of K. Ford, D. R. Heath-Brown and S. Konyagin concerning prime avoidance of square-free numbers and perfect powers of prime numbers.
For any positive integer $k$, we show that infinitely often, perfect $k$-th powers appear inside very long gaps between consecutive prime numbers, that is, gaps of size $$ c_k \frac{\log p \log_2 p \log_4 p}{(\log_3 p)^2}, $$ where $p$ is the smaller of the two primes.
In this paper, using the well known fact that the series of reciprocals of primes diverges, we obtain a general inequality for gaps of consecutive primes that holds for infinitely many primes. As it is shown the key ingredient for this direct approach is a consequence of the the Kummer's characterization of summable sequences of positive terms. Some interesting consequences are then presented. In particular, we show how the twin-prime conjecture is related to our main result.
We derive heuristically formula for the $k$--moments $M_k(x)$ of the gaps between consecutive primes$<x $ represented directly by $x$$π(x)$ --- the number of primes up to: $M_k(x)= Γ(k+1)x^k/π^{k-1}(x)+\mathcal{O}(x)$, We illustrate obtained results by computer data.
We survey some past conditional results on the distribution of large differences between consecutive primes and examine how the Hardy-Littlewood prime k-tuples conjecture can be applied to this question.
Let $r \ge 2$ be an integer. We adapt the Maynard-Tao sieve to produce the asymptotically best-known bounded gaps between products of $r$ distinct primes. Our result applies to positive-density subsets of the primes that satisfy certain equidistribution conditions. This improves on the work of Thorne and Sono.
We show that the existence of arithmetic progressions with few primes, with a quantitative bound on "few", implies the existence of larger gaps between primes less than x than is currently known unconditionally. In particular, we derive this conclusion if there are certain types of exceptional zeros of Dirichlet L-functions.
A few years ago we identified a recursion that works directly with the gaps among the generators in each stage of Eratosthenes sieve. This recursion provides explicit enumerations of sequences of gaps among the generators, which sequences are known as constellations. By studying this recursion on the cycles of gaps across stages of Eratosthenes sieve, we are able to provide evidence on a number of open problems regarding gaps between prime numbers. The basic counts of short constellations in the cycles of gaps provide evidence toward the twin prime conjecture and toward resolving a series of q…
In this paper, we apply the method of Maynard and Tao to the set of products of two distinct primes (E2-numbers). We obtain several results on the distribution of E2-numbers and primes. Among others, the result of Goldston, Pintz, Yildirim and Graham on small gaps between m consecutive E2-numbers is improved.
We show that there exists pairs of consecutive primes less than $x$ whose difference is larger than $t(1+o(1))(\log{x})(\log\log{x})(\log\log\log\log{x})(\log\log\log{x})^{-2}$ for any fixed $t$. Our proof works by incorporating recent progress in sieve methods related to small gaps between primes into the Erdos-Rankin construction. This answers a well-known question of Erdos.
For each $m\geq 1$, there exist infinitely many primes $p_1<p_2<\ldots<p_{m+1}$ such that $p_{m+1}-p_1=O(m^4e^{8m})$ and $p_j+2$ has at most $\frac{16m}{\log 2}+\frac{5\log m}{\log 2}+37$ prime divisors for each $j$.
In the framework of Cramer's probabilistic model of primes, we explore the exact and asymptotic distributions of maximal prime gaps. We show that the Gumbel extreme value distribution exp(-exp(-x)) is the limit law for maximal gaps between Cramer's random primes. The result can be derived from a general theorem about intervals between discrete random events occurring with slowly varying probability monotonically decreasing to zero. A straightforward generalization extends the Gumbel limit law to maximal gaps between prime constellations in Cramer's model.
Using Duke's large sieve inequality for Hecke Gr{ö}ssencharaktere and the new sieve methods of Maynard and Tao, we prove a general result on gaps between primes in the context of multidimensional Hecke equidistribution. As an application, for any fixed $0<ε<\frac{1}{2}$, we prove the existence of infinitely many bounded gaps between primes of the form $p=a^2+b^2$ such that $|a|<ε\sqrt{p}$. Furthermore, for certain diagonal curves $\mathcal{C}:ax^α+by^β=c$, we obtain infinitely many bounded gaps between the primes $p$ such that $|p+1-\#\mathcal{C}(\mathbb{F}_p)|<ε\sqrt{p}$.
Most prime gaps results have been proven using tools from analytic or algebraic number theory in the last few centuries. In this paper, we would like to present some probabilistic way of proving many essential results. A major component of the proof is a probabilistic approach to the sieve method. In addition, we discuss their connections with recent work by Zhang and Maynard on small and large gaps in prime numbers.
We study the first occurrences of gaps between primes in the arithmetic progression (P): $r$, $r+q$, $r+2q$, $r+3q,\ldots,$ where $q$ and $r$ are coprime integers, $q>r\ge1$. The growth trend and distribution of the first-occurrence gap sizes are similar to those of maximal gaps between primes in (P). The histograms of first-occurrence gap sizes, after appropriate rescaling, are well approximated by the Gumbel extreme value distribution. Computations suggest that first-occurrence gaps are much more numerous than maximal gaps: there are $O(\log^2 x)$ first-occurrence gaps between primes in (P) …
Baker, Harman, and Pintz showed that a weak form of the Prime Number Theorem holds in intervals of the form $[x-x^{0.525},x]$ for large $x$. In this paper, we extend a result of Maynard and Tao concerning small gaps between primes to intervals of this length. More precisely, we prove that for any $δ\in [0.525,1]$ there exist positive integers $k,d$ such that for sufficiently large $x$, the interval $[x-x^δ,x]$ contains $\gg_{k} \frac{x^δ}{(\log x)^k}$ pairs of consecutive primes differing by at most $d$. This confirms a speculation of Maynard that results on small gaps between primes can be re…
Let $k\geq 2$ be a fixed natural number. We establish the existence of infinitely many pairs of consecutive primes $p_n$, $p_{n+1}$ satisfying $$ p_{n+1}-p_n\geq c\:\frac{\log p_n\: \log_2 p_n\: \log_4 p_n}{\log_3 p_n}\:,$$ with $c$ being a fixed positive constant, for which the interval $(p_n, p_{n+1})$ contains the $k$-th power of a prime number.
We derive heuristically approximate formulas for the negative $k$--moments $M_{-k}(x)$ of the gaps between consecutive primes$<x $ represented directly by $π(x)$ --- the number of primes up to $x$. In particular we propose an analytical formula for the sum of reciprocals of gaps between consecutive primes $<x : ~ M_{-1}(x)\sim \frac{π^2(x)}{x-2π(x)}\log\Big(\frac{x}{2π(x)}\Big) \sim x \log \log(x)/\log^2(x)$. We illustrate obtained results by the enormous computer data up to $x=4\times 10^{18}$.
Erdős considered the second moment of the gap-counting function of prime divisors in 1946 and proved an upper bound that is not of the right order of magnitude. We prove asymptotics for all moments. Furthermore, we prove a generalisation stating that the gaps between primes $p$ for which there is no $\mathbb{Q}_p$-point on a random variety are Poisson distributed.
Suppose that $1<c<9/8$. For any $m\geq 1$, there exist infinitely many $n$ such that $$ \{[n^c],\ [(n+1)^c],\ \ldots,\ [(n+k_0)^c]\} $$ contains at least $m+1$ primes, if $k_0$ is sufficiently large (only depending on $m$).
Question 10208b (1992) of the American Mathematical Monthly asked: does there exist an increasing sequence $\{a_k\}$ of positive integers and a constant $B > 0$ having the property that $\{ a_k + n\}$ contains no more than $B$ primes for every integer $n$? A positive answer to this question became known as Golomb's conjecture. In this note we give a negative answer, making use of recent progress in prime number theory.
A new and exciting breakthrough due to Maynard establishes that there exist infinitely many pairs of distinct primes $p_1,p_2$ with $|p_1-p_2|\leq 600$ as a consequence of the Bombieri-Vinogradov Theorem. In this paper, we apply his general method to the setting of Chebotarev sets of primes. We study applications of these bounded gaps with an emphasis on ranks of prime quadratic twists of elliptic curves over $\mathbb{Q}$, congruence properties of the Fourier coefficients of normalized Hecke eigenforms, and representations of primes by binary quadratic forms.
We introduce a refinement of the GPY sieve method for studying prime $k$-tuples and small gaps between primes. This refinement avoids previous limitations of the method, and allows us to show that for each $k$, the prime $k$-tuples conjecture holds for a positive proportion of admissible $k$-tuples. In particular, $\liminf_{n}(p_{n+m}-p_n)<\infty$ for any integer $m$. We also show that $\liminf(p_{n+1}-p_n)\le 600$, and, if we assume the Elliott-Halberstam conjecture, that $\liminf_n(p_{n+1}-p_n)\le 12$ and $\liminf_n (p_{n+2}-p_n)\le 600$.
A positive integer is called an $E_j$-number if it is the product of $j$ distinct primes. We prove that there are infinitely many triples of $E_2$-numbers within a gap size of $32$ and infinitely many triples of $E_3$-numbers within a gap size of $15$. Assuming the Elliot-Halberstam conjecture for primes and $E_2$-numbers, we can improve these gaps to $12$ and $5$, respectively. We can obtain even smaller gaps for almost primes, almost prime powers, or integers having the same exponent pattern in the their prime factorizations. In particular, if $d(x)$ denotes the number of divisors of $x$, we…
Let $α, β\geq 0$ and $α+ β< 1$. In this short note, we show that $\liminf_{n \to \infty} p_n^β(p_{n+1}^α- p_n^α) = 0$, where $p_n$ is the $n$th prime. This notes an improvement over results of Sándor and gives additional evidence towards a conjecture of Andrica. This follows directly from recent results on prime pairs from Maynard, Tao, Zhang.
We find arbitrarily large configurations of irreducible polynomials over finite fields that are separated by low degree polynomials. Our proof adapts an argument of Pintz from the integers, in which he combines the methods of Goldston-Pintz-Yıldırım and Green-Tao to find arbitrarily long arithmetic progressions of generalized twin primes.
Let $p_n$ denote the $n$th prime and $g_n:=p_{n+1}-p_n$ the $n$th prime gap. We demonstrate the existence of infinitely many values of $n$ for which $g_n>g_{n+1}>\cdots>g_{n+m}$ with $m\gg \log\log\log n$ and similarly for the reversed inequalities. In doing so we settle a conjecture of Erdös for the case $m=2$.
We investigate some extremal problems in Fourier analysis and their connection to a problem in prime number theory. In particular, we improve the current bounds for the largest possible gap between consecutive primes assuming the Riemann hypothesis.
