Digitally delicate primes

DOI10.1016/J.JNT.2016.04.007MaRDI QIDQ301438zbMATH OpenOpenAlexFDO

Authors Jackson Hopper, Paul Pollack

Publication date 30 June 2016

Published in Journal of Number Theory (Search for Journal in Brave)

Full work available at URL https://arxiv.org/abs/1510.03401

zbMATH Keywords

covering congruencessieve methodsweakly primes

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Radix representation; digital problems (11A63) Applications of sieve methods (11N36) Primality (11Y11)

Abstract: Tao has shown that in any fixed base, a positive proportion of prime numbers cannot have any digit changed and remain prime. In other words, most primes are "digitally delicate". We strengthen this result in a manner suggested by Tao: A positive proportion of primes become composite under any change of a single digit and any insertion a fixed number of arbitrary digits at the beginning or end.

Review text

Primality testing based on digital observation is a very interesting idea and expectedly difficult topic. Of the few known results, Erdös proved in 1979 the existence of infinitely many weakly primes, i.e., primes that become composite if any single digit is altered. \textit{T. Tao} [J. Aust. Math. Soc. 91, No. 3, 405--413 (2011; Zbl 1251.11089)] showed that a positive proportion of primes are weakly, in any chosen digital base. This fact is now extended in the present article, that a positive proportion of primes become composite if any digit is altered and any digital string of fixed length appended at the beginning or end. As in Tao's work, the method employs a partially covering set of congruences and an upper bound sieve of Brun-Selberg.

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Cites work

• A REMARK ON PRIMALITY TESTING AND DECIMAL EXPANSIONS
• An introduction to the theory of numbers. Edited and revised by D. R. Heath-Brown and J. H. Silverman. With a foreword by Andrew Wiles
• Composites that remain composite after changing a digit
• scientific article; zbMATH DE number 3467229 (Why is no real title available?)
• On Divisors of Fermat, Fibonacci, Lucas, and Lehmer Numbers
• On divisors of Lucas and Lehmer numbers
• Repeatedly appending any digit to generate composite numbers

Cited in

(6)

• Consecutive primes which are widely digitally delicate
• Widely digitally stable numbers
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• Primes that become composite after changing an arbitrary digit
• A REMARK ON PRIMALITY TESTING AND DECIMAL EXPANSIONS
• scientific article; zbMATH DE number 7674532 (Why is no real title available?)

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