Linear equations in primes (Q5966716)

The solubility of the following system of linear equations in primes \(p_ j\) depends essentially on the value of the positive integer \(n-k\) \[ \sum_{j=1}^ n a_{ij} p_ j=b_ i, \qquad 1\leq i\leq k.\tag{1} \] In the present paper the author shows that in some cases we need only a very small \(n-k\). The author's new idea is to split equations in (1) into groups in certain way such that conditions for guaranteeing prime solutions of (1) are satisfied ``locally'' in each group. For some special kind of (1) the author proves that the number of solutions in primes \(p_ j\leq X\), \(j=1,\dots,n\), is \(\gg X^{n-k}(\log X)^{-n}\) whenever \(X\geq X_ 0(a_{ij})\). By this result, the author deduces several corollaries. In particular, he obtains: For any fixed \(m\geq 2\) there are distinct primes \(p_ 1<\dots<p_ m\) such that the arithmetic mean \((p_ i+p_ j)/2\) for any two of these primes is also a prime. Moreover, the number of such prime \(m\)-tuplets with \(p_ m\leq X\) is \(\gg X^ m(\log x)^{-m(m+1)/2}\). The result was predicted by \textit{C. Pomerance}, \textit{A. Sárközy} and \textit{C. L. Stewart} [Pac. J. Math. 133, 363-379 (1988; Zbl 0668.10055)] and very recently \textit{A. Granville} [Can. Math. Bull. 33, 452-454 (1990; Zbl 0691.10039)] has shown that, supposing Hardy-Littlewood's prime \(k\)- tuplets conjecture, an infinite set of such primes exists. Bombieri found twelve such primes, namely, 4, 17, 521, 42281, 138461, 195137, 204137, 221537, 363497, 367001, 414737 and 434717.