In number theory, a formula for primes is a formula generating the prime numbers, exactly and without exception. Formulas for calculating primes do exist; however, they are computationally very slow. A number of constraints are known, showing what such a "formula" can and cannot be.

Formulas based on Wilson's theorem

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A simple formula is

 

for positive integer  , where   is the floor function, which rounds down to the nearest integer. By Wilson's theorem,   is prime if and only if  . Thus, when   is prime, the first factor in the product becomes one, and the formula produces the prime number  . But when   is not prime, the first factor becomes zero and the formula produces the prime number 2.[1] This formula is not an efficient way to generate prime numbers because evaluating   requires about   multiplications and reductions modulo  .

In 1964, Willans gave the formula

 

for the  th prime number  .[2] This formula reduces to[3][4]  ; that is, it tautologically defines   as the smallest integer m for which the prime-counting function   is at least n. This formula is also not efficient. In addition to the appearance of  , it computes   by adding up   copies of  ; for example,  .

The articles What is an Answer? by Herbert Wilf (1982)[5] and Formulas for Primes by Underwood Dudley (1983)[6] have further discussion about the worthlessness of such formulas.

Formula based on a system of Diophantine equations

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Because the set of primes is a computably enumerable set, by Matiyasevich's theorem, it can be obtained from a system of Diophantine equations. Jones et al. (1976) found an explicit set of 14 Diophantine equations in 26 variables, such that a given number k + 2 is prime if and only if that system has a solution in nonnegative integers:[7]

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

The 14 equations α0, …, α13 can be used to produce a prime-generating polynomial inequality in 26 variables:

 

That is,

 

is a polynomial inequality in 26 variables, and the set of prime numbers is identical to the set of positive values taken on by the left-hand side as the variables a, b, …, z range over the nonnegative integers.

A general theorem of Matiyasevich says that if a set is defined by a system of Diophantine equations, it can also be defined by a system of Diophantine equations in only 9 variables.[8] Hence, there is a prime-generating polynomial inequality as above with only 10 variables. However, its degree is large (in the order of 1045). On the other hand, there also exists such a set of equations of degree only 4, but in 58 variables.[9]

Mills' formula

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The first such formula known was established by W. H. Mills (1947), who proved that there exists a real number A such that, if

 

then

 

is a prime number for all positive integers n.[10] If the Riemann hypothesis is true, then the smallest such A has a value of around 1.3063778838630806904686144926... (sequence A051021 in the OEIS) and is known as Mills' constant.[11] This value gives rise to the primes  ,  ,  , ... (sequence A051254 in the OEIS). Very little is known about the constant A (not even whether it is rational). This formula has no practical value, because there is no known way of calculating the constant without finding primes in the first place.

There is nothing special about the floor function in the formula. Tóth proved that there also exists a constant   such that

 

is also prime-representing for  .[12]

In the case  , the value of the constant   begins with 1.24055470525201424067... The first few primes generated are:

 
 

Without assuming the Riemann hypothesis, Elsholtz developed several prime-representing functions similar to those of Mills. For example, if  , then   is prime for all positive integers  . Similarly, if  , then   is prime for all positive integers  .[13]

Wright's formula

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Another tetrationally growing prime-generating formula similar to Mills' comes from a theorem of E. M. Wright. He proved that there exists a real number α such that, if

  and
  for  ,

then

 

is prime for all  .[14] Wright gives the first seven decimal places of such a constant:  . This value gives rise to the primes  ,  , and  .   is even, and so is not prime. However, with  ,  ,  , and   are unchanged, while   is a prime with 4932 digits.[15] This sequence of primes cannot be extended beyond   without knowing more digits of  . Like Mills' formula, and for the same reasons, Wright's formula cannot be used to find primes.

A function that represents all primes

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Given the constant   (sequence A249270 in the OEIS), for  , define the sequence

  (1)

where   is the floor function. Then for  ,   equals the  th prime:  ,  ,  , etc. [16] The initial constant   given in the article is precise enough for equation (1) to generate the primes through 37, the  th prime.

The exact value of   that generates all primes is given by the rapidly-converging series

 

where   is the  th prime, and   is the product of all primes less than  . The more digits of   that we know, the more primes equation (1) will generate. For example, we can use 25 terms in the series, using the 25 primes less than 100, to calculate the following more precise approximation:

 

This has enough digits for equation (1) to yield again the 25 primes less than 100.

As with Mills' formula and Wright's formula above, in order to generate a longer list of primes, we need to start by knowing more digits of the initial constant,  , which in this case requires a longer list of primes in its calculation.

Plouffe's formulas

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In 2018 Simon Plouffe conjectured a set of formulas for primes. Similarly to the formula of Mills, they are of the form

 

where   is the function rounding to the nearest integer. For example, with   and  , this gives 113, 367, 1607, 10177, 102217... (sequence A323176 in the OEIS). Using   and   with   a certain number between 0 and one half, Plouffe found that he could generate a sequence of 50 probable primes (with high probability of being prime). Presumably there exists an ε such that this formula will give an infinite sequence of actual prime numbers. The number of digits starts at 501 and increases by about 1% each time.[17][18]

Prime formulas and polynomial functions

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It is known that no non-constant polynomial function P(n) with integer coefficients exists that evaluates to a prime number for all integers n. The proof is as follows: suppose that such a polynomial existed. Then P(1) would evaluate to a prime p, so  . But for any integer k,   also, so   cannot also be prime (as it would be divisible by p) unless it were p itself. But the only way   for all k is if the polynomial function is constant. The same reasoning shows an even stronger result: no non-constant polynomial function P(n) exists that evaluates to a prime number for almost all integers n.

Euler first noticed (in 1772) that the quadratic polynomial

 

is prime for the 40 integers n = 0, 1, 2, ..., 39, with corresponding primes 41, 43, 47, 53, 61, 71, ..., 1601. The differences between the terms are 2, 4, 6, 8, 10... For n = 40, it produces a square number, 1681, which is equal to 41 × 41, the smallest composite number for this formula for n ≥ 0. If 41 divides n, it divides P(n) too. Furthermore, since P(n) can be written as n(n + 1) + 41, if 41 divides n + 1 instead, it also divides P(n). The phenomenon is related to the Ulam spiral, which is also implicitly quadratic, and the class number; this polynomial is related to the Heegner number  . There are analogous polynomials for   (the lucky numbers of Euler), corresponding to other Heegner numbers.

Given a positive integer S, there may be infinitely many c such that the expression n2 + n + c is always coprime to S. The integer c may be negative, in which case there is a delay before primes are produced.

It is known, based on Dirichlet's theorem on arithmetic progressions, that linear polynomial functions   produce infinitely many primes as long as a and b are relatively prime (though no such function will assume prime values for all values of n). Moreover, the Green–Tao theorem says that for any k there exists a pair of a and b, with the property that   is prime for any n from 0 through k − 1. However, as of 2020, the best known result of such type is for k = 27:

 

is prime for all n from 0 through 26.[19] It is not even known whether there exists a univariate polynomial of degree at least 2, that assumes an infinite number of values that are prime; see Bunyakovsky conjecture.

Possible formula using a recurrence relation

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Another prime generator is defined by the recurrence relation

 

where gcd(x, y) denotes the greatest common divisor of x and y. The sequence of differences an+1an starts with 1, 1, 1, 5, 3, 1, 1, 1, 1, 11, 3, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 23, 3, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 47, 3, 1, 5, 3, ... (sequence A132199 in the OEIS). Rowland (2008) proved that this sequence contains only ones and prime numbers. However, it does not contain all the prime numbers, since the terms gcd(n + 1, an) are always odd and so never equal to 2. 587 is the smallest prime (other than 2) not appearing in the first 10,000 outcomes that are different from 1. Nevertheless, in the same paper it was conjectured to contain all odd primes, even though it is rather inefficient.[20]

Note that there is a trivial program that enumerates all and only the prime numbers, as well as more efficient ones, so such recurrence relations are more a matter of curiosity than of any practical use.

See also

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References

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  1. ^ Mackinnon, Nick (June 1987), "Prime number formulae", The Mathematical Gazette, 71 (456): 113–114, doi:10.2307/3616496, JSTOR 3616496, S2CID 171537609.
  2. ^ Willans, C. P. (December 1964), "On formulae for the  th prime number", The Mathematical Gazette, 48 (366): 413–415, doi:10.2307/3611701, JSTOR 3611701, S2CID 126149459.
  3. ^ Neill, T. B. M.; Singer, M. (October 1965), "To the Editor, The Mathematical Gazette", The Mathematical Gazette, 49 (369): 303–303, doi:10.2307/3612863, JSTOR 3612863
  4. ^ Goodstein, R. L.; Wormell, C. P. (February 1967), "Formulae For Primes", The Mathematical Gazette, 51 (375): 35–38, doi:10.2307/3613607, JSTOR 3613607
  5. ^ Wilf, Herbert S. (1982), "What is an answer?", The American Mathematical Monthly, 89 (5): 289–292, doi:10.2307/2321713, JSTOR 2321713, MR 0653502
  6. ^ Dudley, Underwood (1983), "Formulas for primes", Mathematics Magazine, 56 (1): 17–22, doi:10.2307/2690261, JSTOR 2690261, MR 0692169
  7. ^ Jones, James P.; Sato, Daihachiro; Wada, Hideo; Wiens, Douglas (1976), "Diophantine representation of the set of prime numbers", American Mathematical Monthly, 83 (6), Mathematical Association of America: 449–464, doi:10.2307/2318339, JSTOR 2318339, archived from the original on 2012-02-24.
  8. ^ Matiyasevich, Yuri V. (1999), "Formulas for Prime Numbers", in Tabachnikov, Serge (ed.), Kvant Selecta: Algebra and Analysis, vol. II, American Mathematical Society, pp. 13–24, ISBN 978-0-8218-1915-9.
  9. ^ Jones, James P. (1982), "Universal diophantine equation", Journal of Symbolic Logic, 47 (3): 549–571, doi:10.2307/2273588, JSTOR 2273588, S2CID 11148823.
  10. ^ Mills, W. H. (1947), "A prime-representing function" (PDF), Bulletin of the American Mathematical Society, 53 (6): 604, doi:10.1090/S0002-9904-1947-08849-2.
  11. ^ Caldwell, Chris K.; Cheng, Yuanyou (2005), "Determining Mills' Constant and a Note on Honaker's Problem", Journal of Integer Sequences, 8, Article 05.4.1.
  12. ^ Tóth, László (2017), "A Variation on Mills-Like Prime-Representing Functions" (PDF), Journal of Integer Sequences, 20 (17.9.8), arXiv:1801.08014.
  13. ^ Elsholtz, Christian (2020), "Unconditional Prime-Representing Functions, Following Mills", American Mathematical Monthly, 127 (7), Washington, DC: Mathematical Association of America: 639–642, arXiv:2004.01285, doi:10.1080/00029890.2020.1751560, S2CID 214795216
  14. ^ E. M. Wright (1951), "A prime-representing function", American Mathematical Monthly, 58 (9): 616–618, doi:10.2307/2306356, JSTOR 2306356
  15. ^ Baillie, Robert (5 June 2017), "Wright's Fourth Prime", arXiv:1705.09741v3 [math.NT]
  16. ^ Fridman, Dylan; Garbulsky, Juli; Glecer, Bruno; Grime, James; Tron Florentin, Massi (2019), "A Prime-Representing Constant", American Mathematical Monthly, 126 (1), Washington, DC: Mathematical Association of America: 70–73, arXiv:2010.15882, doi:10.1080/00029890.2019.1530554, S2CID 127727922
  17. ^ Steckles, Katie (January 26, 2019), "Mathematician's record-beating formula can generate 50 prime numbers", New Scientist
  18. ^ Simon Plouffe (2019), "A set of formulas for primes", arXiv:1901.01849 [math.NT] As of January 2019, the number he gives in the appendix for the 50th number generated is actually the 48th.
  19. ^ PrimeGrid's AP27 Search, Official announcement, from PrimeGrid. The AP27 is listed in "Jens Kruse Andersen's Primes in Arithmetic Progression Records page".
  20. ^ Rowland, Eric S. (2008), "A Natural Prime-Generating Recurrence", Journal of Integer Sequences, 11 (2): 08.2.8, arXiv:0710.3217, Bibcode:2008JIntS..11...28R.

Further reading

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  • Regimbal, Stephen (1975), "An explicit Formula for the k-th prime number", Mathematics Magazine, 48 (4), Mathematical Association of America: 230–232, doi:10.2307/2690354, JSTOR 2690354.
  • A Venugopalan. Formula for primes, twinprimes, number of primes and number of twinprimes. Proceedings of the Indian Academy of Sciences—Mathematical Sciences, Vol. 92, No 1, September 1983, pp. 49–52 errata
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