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Prime Counting Functions of Sorted Arrays Research Question
Prime Counting Functions of Sorted Arrays Research Question
Prime Counting Functions of Sorted Arrays Research Question
Research Question:
properties of the locations of primes within the array. Investigate R(a) and C(a), which is the
expected number of primes in row a or column a, counting from the top or the left.
Hypothesis:
R is monotonic decreasing with respect to both a and b. C takes on two constant values, one of
Background:
Dirichlet’s Theorem states that for any two relatively prime integers a and b, there are infinitely
many primes in the arithmetic sequence starting with a with common difference b. The typical
way to prove this statement is by showing that L(1, χ) is nonzero for all nontrivial χ, where L is
the Dirichlet L-function. This requires some calculus and analytic number theory. Dirichlet’s
Theorem allows us to prove statements like there are infinitely primes ending in 3 (direct
application with a = 3, b = 10). However, Dirichlet’s Theorem does not tell us anything about the
density of primes within the sequence. For example, we know that there are an infinite number of
primes ending in 3; however, we don’t know where those primes are: they could be all be greater
than 1000, given only Dirichlet’s Theorem. This problem, then, attempts to fill the gaps left by
Dirichlet’s Theorem.
Rationale:
The proof of Dirichlet’s Theorem involves the Dirichlet L-function, while the generalized
Riemann Hypothesis involves the study of these L-functions. As its name suggests, the all-
important Riemann Hypothesis is a general case of the generalized Riemann Hypothesis, so the
study of one of these L-functions other than the extensively studied Riemann zeta function may
provide insight into the true character of these L-functions and which properties of the Riemann
zeta function generalize to all L-functions. Due to the Dirichlet L-function’s close relation with
our topic of investigation, the function is worth further investigation. Study of these L-functions
is a part of complex analysis, whereas the original problem statement was pure number theory,
mathematics.
Basis of Hypothesis:
It is well known that the prime counting function, π(n), is concave down; in other words, as you
count upwards, the primes generally get more and more spread out, with larger gaps in between
each. As such, having R(a) be monotonic decreasing aligns with the Prime Number Theorem,
which is a rigorous statement of the above. A known approximation of the number of primes
below a given n is n/log(n); using this approximation and taking the limit of a as it approaches
infinity (relative to n), we see that the number of primes in any given row should approach
n/log(a). It is clear that certain columns will have no primes; particularly, when the column
number is not relatively prime to the number of columns. Regarding the remaining columns with
primes, I adopted the null hypothesis that the column number does not influence the asymptotic
Operational Definitions:
● Prime Counting Function: A function π(x) : N => N that counts the number of prime
numbers below x.
called the Dirichlet character and is defined as a function from the integers to the
○ There exists a positive integer k such that χ(n) = χ(n + k) for all n.
Remark. This asymptotic bound only gives an asymptotic bound; pointwise, there is still
differences of points on the asymptotic function may not reflect the true number of
● Asymptotic: A function g(x) is asymptotic to f(x) if the limit of their quotient approaches
0 as x approaches infinity.
● Dirichlet L-series