Small gaps between primes or almost primes

We investigate logarithmic and square-root types of bounds for the general difference of two primes, $P_{k+q}-P_k$, $k, q\in\mathbb{N}$.

This paper describes some of the ideas used in the development of our work on small gaps between primes.

For any $m = 3 \left( 2n + 1 \right) with \ n \in \mathbb{N^*} ,$ the prime counting function $\pi(m) = 4 + \left \vert A_4(m) \right \vert + 2 \left \vert A_6(m) \right \vert $ where $A_6(m) $ and $ A_4(m) $ are the sets of Twin Primes and "Isolated" Primes, below $m$, respectively. $T(m) = 1 + \left \vert A_2(m) \right \vert + \left \vert A_4(m) \right \vert + \left \vert A_6(m) \right \vert$ is the number of consecutive odd composite numbers (COCONs) below $ m.$ $ A_2(m)$ ...

Using evaluations of the difference between consecutive primes we develop another way of estimating of the number of primes in the interval $(n, 2n)$. We also discuss the ultra Cramer conjecture, $p_{n+1} - p_n = O(log^{1+\epsilon}p_n)$ where $\epsilon > 0$, in the context of the results we have obtained in our paper.

Let $m \in \mathbb{N}$ be large. We show that there exist infinitely many primes $q_{1}< \cdot\cdot\cdot < q_{m+1}$ such that \[ q_{m+1}-q_{1}=O(e^{7.63m}) \] and $q_{j}+2$ has at most \[ \frac{7.36m}{\log 2} + \frac{4\log m}{\log 2} + 21 \] prime factors for each $1 \leq j \leq m+1$. This improves the previous result of Li and Pan, replacing $e^{7.63m}$ by $m^{4}e^{8m}$ and $\frac{7.36m}{\log 2} + \frac{4\log m}{\log 2} + 21$ by $\frac{16m}{\log 2} + \frac{5\log m}{\log 2} +...

We prove that there are infinitely often pairs of primes much closer than the average spacing between primes - almost within the square root of the average spacing. We actually prove a more general result concerning the set of values taken on by the differences between primes.

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.

These are notes on Zhang's work and subsequent developments produced in preparation for 5 hours of talks for a general mathematical audience given in Cambridge, Edinburgh and Auckland over the last year. Being for colloquium-style talks, these notes are at a much lower level than other accounts in the literature. In places they are deliberately quite nonrigorous. Whether anyone will find them helpful is unclear but some care was taken on their preparation and there is, I ho...

One field of particular interest in Number Theory concerns the gaps between consecutive primes. Within the last few years, very important results have been achieved on how small these gaps can be. The strongest of these results were obtained by Dan Goldston, Janos Pintz and Cem Yalcin Yildirim. The present work begins by generalizing their results so that they can be applied to related problems in a more direct manner. Additionally, we improve the bound for $F_2$ (concerning ...

We show that $$\sum_{\substack{p_n \in [x, 2x] \\ p_{n+1} - p_n \ge x^{1/2}}} (p_{n+1} - p_n) \ll x^{0.57+\epsilon}$$ and $$\sum_{\substack{p_n \in [x, 2x] \\ p_{n+1} - p_n \ge x^{0.45}}} (p_{n+1} - p_n) \ll x^{0.63+\epsilon},$$ where $p_n$ is the $n$th prime number. The proof combines Heath-Brown's recent work with Harman's sieve, improving and extending his results. We give applications of the results to prime-representing functions, binary digits of primes and approximatio...