Chapter 3: Primes and their Distribution

SECTION C Properties of Prime Numbers By the end of this section you will be able to understand what is meant by twin primes understand Goldbachs conjecture prove properties of primes in an arithmetic progression There are many unanswered questions in Number Theory. In this section we examine some of these. C1 Twin Primes Primes like 11 and 13 are examples of twin primes. Definition (3.11). Twin primes are of the form p and p + 2 where p is prime. Other examples are (i) 17 and 19 (ii) 41 and 43 (iii) 1 000 000 000 061 and 1 000 000 000 063 One of the outstanding questions of Number theory is: Are there infinite many primes of the form p and p + 2 ? No one has come up with a proof of this result although most mathematicians do seem to believe it is true. The largest known twin primes at present are: 65516468355 2333333 1 This number was discovered in 2009. There are also large gaps between consecutive integers. For any positive integer n there are n composite integers. For example there are 7 composite integers are: 90, 91, 92, 93, 94, 95 and 96 In general we have: Proposition (3.12). For any integer n there are n composite integers. Proof. Consider the integers ( n + 1) !+ 2, ( n + 1) !+ 3, ( n + 1) !+ 4, L , ( n + 1) !+ n, ( n + 1) !+ ( n + 1) (*) The first integer in this list, ( n + 1) !+ 2 , is divisible by 2. Why? Because 2

( n + 1) !+ 2 . Similarly the second number in the list, ( n + 1) !+ 3 , is divisible by 3 and so on. The last number ( n + 1) !+ ( n + 1) is divisible by
2 therefore 2
n + 1 . Hence the n numbers in this list are all composite because each of these has a factor which is not 1 and the number itself. We have produced n consecutive integers.

( n + 1) ! and 2

The numbers in the list (*) can be used to generate n composite numbers. For example let n = 6 then the following 6 integers are composite:

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( 6 + 1) !+ 2 = 5042 ( 6 + 1) !+ 3 = 5043 ( 6 + 1) !+ 4 = 5044 ( 6 + 1) !+ 5 = 5045 ( 6 + 1) !+ 6 = 5046 ( 6 + 1) !+ 7 = 5047

C2 Goldbach Conjecture Another example of a unresolved problem in Number Theory is Goldbachs Conjecture which states that: Goldbachs Conjecture (3.13). Every even number greater than 2 can be written as a sum of two primes. For example 4 = 2+2 6 = 3+3 8 = 5+3 10 = 5 + 5 12 = 7 + 5 14 = 7 + 7 16 = 11 + 5 18 = 11 + 7 20 = 13 + 7 Again this result has not been proven. Mathematicians have been trying to prove this result for the last three hundred years but have failed. Computes have verified this result for all the even integers less than 4 1014 . The nearest result to Goldbachs conjecture that has been proven is Every even integer > 2 is the sum of six or fewer primes. C3 Primes of the form 4n 1 We can write every integer in one of the following forms: 4n, 4n + 1, 4n + 2, 4n + 3 How do we know this? Well we can prove this. Proposition (3.14). Every integer has one of the following forms: 4n, 4n + 1, 4n + 2, 4n + 3 How do we prove this? By applying the Division Algorithm. Proof. We use the Division Algorithm which is Theorem (2.1) on page 17 of Burton: Given integers a and b > 0 , there exists unique integers q and r such that a = bq + r 0r <b Let a be any integer and b = 4 then applying the Division Algorithm with q = n we have

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a = 4n + r 0r <4 This means that any integer a can be represented by 4n, 4n + 1, 4n + 2, 4n + 3 We are interested in primes of this format - 4n, 4n + 1, 4n + 2, 4n + 3 . However primes cannot be of the form 4n or 4n + 2 . Why not? Because these are even numbers. Can we write all primes in the form 4n + 1 or 4n + 3 ? These numbers 4n + 1 or 4n + 3 cover all the odd numbers. Hence all the odd primes must be covered by either of these numbers. Next we prove there are infinite many primes of the form 4n + 3 . In order to prove this we need a Lemma: Lemma (3.15). The product of two or more integers of the form 4n + 1 is of the same form, 4n + 1 . Proof. It is sufficient to prove this result for two integers a and b. Let a = 4n1 + 1 and b = 4n2 + 1 then ab = ( 4n1 + 1) ( 4n2 + 1) = 16n1n2 + 4n1 + 4n2 + 1 = 4 ( 4n1n2 + n1 + n2 ) + 1 Hence ab is of the form 4n + 1 .

Proposition (3.16). There are infinitely many primes of the form 4n + 3 . How do we prove this result? By contradiction Proof. Suppose there are a finite number of primes of the form 4n + 3 . Let these be p1 , p2 , p3 , p4 , L , P ( ) where P is the largest such prime. Consider the number N = 4 ( p1 p2 p3 p4 L P ) 1 We can rewrite N as N = 4 ( p1 p2 p3 p4 L P ) 1

= 4 ( [ p1 p2 p3 p4 L P ] 1) + 3

Note that N is an odd number and of the form 4n + 3 . Either N is composite or prime. If N is prime then we are done because we have found a larger prime of the form 4n + 3 which is greater than P. If N is composite then it has a prime divisor of the form 4n + 3 . Why? Since N is odd and all odd numbers have the form 4n + 1 or 4n + 3 . If all the factors of N were of the form 4n + 1 then by the above Lemma (3.15) N would also be of this form but it is not. Hence it must have a prime of the form 4n + 3 . Call this prime Q. However this prime Q cannot be one of the numbers in the list ( ) . Why not? Because then Q N and Q

( p1 p2 p3 p4 L P ) and in the above we have N = 4 ( p1 p2 p3 p4 L P ) 1

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which means Q 1 . This is impossible. Our supposition that there are a finite number of primes of the form 4n + 3 must be wrong. This completes the proof. There are also infinite number of primes of the form 4n + 1 . Actually Dirichlet proved that the number of primes in an arithmetic progression are infinite. Dirichlets Theorem (3.17). Let a and b be relatively prime positive integers, then the arithmetic progression a, a + b, a + 2b, a + 3b, L contains infinitely many primes. Proof. Omitted. What does this mean? Let a = 2, b = 3 then there are an infinite number of primes in the list: Example 2 Prove that there are an infinite many primes which end with 999. Solution Applying Dirichlets Theorem (3.17) with a = 999 and b = 1000 we have: 999, 999 + 1000, 999 + 2 ( 1000 ) , 999 + 3 ( 1000 ) , L 999, 1999, 2999, 3999, L Dirichlets Theorem claims that there are infinitely many primes of this form ( ) . Dirichelts Theorem does not claim that the arithmetic progression: a, a + b, a + 2b, a + 3b, L consists solely of primes. C4 Generating Primes Is there a simple formula for generating primes? No. There is a simple formula which generates some primes. For example f ( n ) = n 2 + n + 41 produces primes for n = 1, 2, 3, 4, L , 39 . However when n = 40 we have f ( 40 ) = 402 + 40 + 41 When n = 41 we have f ( 41) = 412 + 41 + 41 Hence f ( 40 ) and f ( 41) are not prime. = 40 ( 40 + 1) + 41 = 41( 40 + 1) = 412

( )

= 41( 41 + 1 + 1) = 41( 43 )