The structure factor of primes

DOI10.1088/1751-8121/AAA52AzbMATH Open1436.11010arXiv1801.01541OpenAlexW2952696737MaRDI QIDQ4642686FDOQ4642686

Authors:

Publication date: 25 May 2018

Published in: Journal of Physics A: Mathematical and Theoretical (Search for Journal in Brave)

Abstract: Although the prime numbers are deterministic, they can be viewed, by some measures, as pseudo-random numbers. In this article, we numerically study the pair statistics of the primes using statistical-mechanical methods, especially the structure factor $S(k)$ in an interval $MleqpleqM+L$ with $M$ large, and $L/M$ smaller than unity. We show that the structure factor of the prime-number configurations in such intervals exhibits well-defined Bragg-like peaks along with a small "diffuse" contribution. This indicates that the primes are appreciably more correlated and ordered than previously thought. Our numerical results definitively suggest an explicit formula for the locations and heights of the peaks. This formula predicts infinitely many peaks in any non-zero interval, similar to the behavior of quasicrystals. However, primes differ from quasicrystals in that the ratio between the location of any two predicted peaks is rational. We also show numerically that the diffuse part decays slowly as $M$ and $L$ increases. This suggests that the diffuse part vanishes in an appropriate infinite-system-size limit.

Full work available at URL: https://arxiv.org/abs/1801.01541

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zbMATH Keywords

prime numbersstructure factorhyperuniformity

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Pseudo-random numbers; Monte Carlo methods (11K45) Primes (11A41)

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Cited In (7)

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• Hyperuniform states of matter
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• Multidimensional scaling and visualization of patterns in prime numbers
• Prime quasientropy and quasichaos
• Generalized Riemann hypothesis, time series and normal distributions
• Hidden multiscale order in the primes

Uses Software

• ECPP

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