Questions tagged [prime-numbers]
Questions where prime numbers play a key-role, such as: questions on the distribution of prime numbers (twin primes, gaps between primes, Hardy–Littlewood conjectures, etc); questions on prime numbers with special properties (Wieferich prime, Wolstenholme prime, etc.). This tag is often used as a specialized tag in combination with the top-level tag nt.number-theory and (if applicable) analytic-number-theory.
405 questions
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Asymptotic density of k-almost primes
Let $\pi_k(x)=|\{n\le x:n=p_1p_2\cdots p_k\}|$ be the counting function for the k-almost primes, generalizing $\pi(x)=\pi_1(x)$. A result of Landau is
$$\pi_k(x)\sim\frac{x(\log\log x)^{k-1}}{(k-1)!\...
13
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3
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Bound the error in estimating a relative totient function
Let $n=p_1^{e_1}\cdots p_k^{e_k}$ be an integer with $k$ prime factors. We know that the number of integers less than $n$ and coprime to it is
$$\Phi(n)=n-\sum_i\frac n{p_i}+\sum_{i \lt j}\frac n{...
11
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Would the following conjectures imply $\lim\inf_{n\to\infty}p_{n+k}-p_{n}=O(k\log k)$?
Assume Goldbach's conjecture. Then for every $n\ge 2$ there exists at least one non-negative integer $r\le n-2$ such that both $n+r$ and $n-r$ are primes. Let's write $r_{0}(n):=\inf\{r\le n-2, (n-r,n+...
55
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4
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How hard is it to compute the number of prime factors of a given integer?
I asked a related question on this mathoverflow thread. That question was promptly answered. This is a natural followup question to that one, which I decided to repost since that question is answered.
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22
votes
3
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Polynomials for natural numbers and irreducible polynomials for prime numbers?
Let $p$ be a prime and $n$ be a natural number.
Define inductively for prime numbers: $f_1(x) := 1$, $f_2(x):=x$, $f_p(x) := 1+\prod_{q\mid p-1} f_q(x)^{v_q(p-1)}$.
Is $f_p(x)$ always irreducible for ...
63
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6
answers
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Has decidability got something to do with primes?
Note: I have modified the question to make it clearer and more relevant. That makes some of references to the old version no longer hold. I hope the victims won't be furious over this.
Motivation:
...
52
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4
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Are there primes of every Hamming weight?
Are there primes of every Hamming weight? That is, for every integer $n \in \mathbb{Z}_{>0}$ does there exist a prime which is the sum of $n$ distinct powers of $2$?
In this case, the Hamming ...
4
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3
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Goldbach conjecture and other problems in additive combinatorics
The field is also known as additive number theory. I am interested in sums $z=x + y$ where $x \in S, y\in T$, and both $S, T$ are infinite sets of positive integers. For instance:
$S = T$ is the set ...
71
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4
answers
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Is a "non-analytic" proof of Dirichlet's theorem on primes known or possible?
It is well-known that one can prove certain special cases of Dirichlet's theorem by exhibiting an integer polynomial $p(x)$ with the properties that the prime divisors of $\{ p(n) | n \in \mathbb{Z} \}...
65
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answer
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Is the Green-Tao theorem true for primes within a given arithmetic progression?
Ben Green and Terrence Tao proved that there are arbitrary length arithmetic progressions among the primes.
Now, consider an arithmetic progression with starting term $a$ and common difference $d$. ...
48
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4
answers
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Why could Mertens not prove the prime number theorem?
We know that
$$
\sum_{n \le x}\frac{1}{n\ln n} = \ln\ln x + c_1 + O(1/x)
$$
where $c_1$ is a constant. Again Mertens' theorem says that the primes $p$ satisfy
$$
\sum_{p \le x}\frac{1}{p} = \ln\ln ...
34
votes
1
answer
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Integers not represented by $ 2 x^2 + x y + 3 y^2 + z^3 - z $
EDIT, 9 March 2014: when I asked this in 2010, I did not have the courage of my convictions, and so did not ask for an if and only if proof, as Kevin Buzzard quite properly pointed out. Such problems ...
29
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6
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Infinitely many primes of the form $2^n+c$ as $n$ varies?
At the time of writing, question 5191 is closed with the accusation of homework. But I don't have a clue about what is going on in that question (other than part 3) [Edit: Anton's comments at 5191 ...
11
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least prime in a arithmetic progression
Hello
Here I want to consider the simplest arithmetic progression $n\equiv 1\pmod{q}$ where $q$ is a prime. Is it true that we can find a prime $p\leq q^2$ in this arithmetic progression?
This ...
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4
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How do these primes jump?
Update 2017.08.28: I am still looking for references. I have posted a request to https://cs.stackexchange.com/q/79971 which includes some literature references I found which are of interest but still ...