Predicting maximal gaps in sets of primes

DOI10.3390/MATH7050400MaRDI QIDQ6312369zbMATH OpenWikidataFDO

Authors Alexei Kourbatov, Marek Wolf

Publication date 11 January 2019

Full work available at URL https://doi.org/10.3390/MATH7050400

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Primes (11A41) Distribution of primes (11N05)

Abstract: Let $q>rge1$ be coprime integers. Let ${mathbbP}_c={mathbbP}_c(q,r,calH)$ be an increasing sequence of primes $p$ satisfying two conditions: (i) $pequivr$ (mod $q$) and (ii) $p$ starts a prime $k$-tuple with a given pattern $calH$. Let $p{i}_c(x)$ be the number of primes in ${mathbbP}_c$ not exceeding $x$. We heuristically derive formulas predicting the growth trend of the maximal gap $G_c(x)=ma{x}_{p^{\prime }lex}(p^{\prime }-p)$ between successive primes $p,p^{\prime }in{mathbbP}_c$. Extensive computations for primes up to $10^{14}$ show that a simple trend formula ${\displaystyle }$G_c(x) sim {xoverpi_c(x)}cdot(log pi_c(x) + O_k(1))${\displaystyle }$ works well for maximal gaps between initial primes of $k$-tuples with $kge2$ (e.g., twin primes, prime triplets, etc.) in residue class $r$ (mod $q$). For $k=1$, however, a more sophisticated formula ${\displaystyle }$G_c(x) sim {xoverpi_c(x)}cdot�ig(log{pi_c^2(x)over x}+O(log q)�ig)${\displaystyle }$ gives a better prediction of maximal gap sizes. The latter includes the important special case of maximal gaps in the sequence of all primes ($k=1$, $q=2$, $r=1$). The distribution of appropriately rescaled maximal gaps $G_c(x)$ is close to the Gumbel extreme value distribution. Computations suggest that almost all maximal gaps satisfy a generalized strong form of Cramer's conjecture. We also conjecture that the number of maximal gaps between primes in ${mathbbP}_c$ below $x$ is $O_k(logx)$.

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