Jumping champions
Odlyzko, Andrew ; Rubinstein, Michael ; Wolf, Marek
Experiment. Math., Tome 8 (1999) no. 4, p. 107-118 / Harvested from Project Euclid
The asymptotic frequency with which pairs of primes below x differ by some fixed integer is understood heuristically, although not rigorously, through the Hardy-Littlewood k-tuple conjecture. Less is known about the differences of consecutive primes. For all x between 1000 and $10^{12}$, the most common difference between consecutive primes is 6. We present heuristic and empirical evidence that 6 continues as the most common difference (jumping champion) up to about $x=1$.$7427\cdot10^{35}$, where it is replaced by 30. In turn, 30 is eventually displaced by 210, which is then displaced by 2310, and so on. Our heuristic arguments are based on a quantitative form of the Hardy-Littlewood conjecture. The technical difficulties in dealing with consecutive primes are formidable enough that even that strong conjecture does not suffice to produce a rigorous proof about the behavior of jumping champions.
Publié le : 1999-05-15
Classification:  11Y70,  11N05
@article{1047477055,
     author = {Odlyzko, Andrew and Rubinstein, Michael and Wolf, Marek},
     title = {Jumping champions},
     journal = {Experiment. Math.},
     volume = {8},
     number = {4},
     year = {1999},
     pages = { 107-118},
     language = {en},
     url = {http://dml.mathdoc.fr/item/1047477055}
}
Odlyzko, Andrew; Rubinstein, Michael; Wolf, Marek. Jumping champions. Experiment. Math., Tome 8 (1999) no. 4, pp.  107-118. http://gdmltest.u-ga.fr/item/1047477055/