Legendre's conjecture states that, for each positive integer n, there is at least one prime between n2 and (n+1)2. Even a cursory check shows that there are in fact more than one. Just how many more? Let us perform a hands-on investigation.
Here are two hypotheses (both are apparently true):
(A) Legendre's conjecture. For each integer n > 0, there is at least one
prime between n2 and (n+1)2. (B) For each integer n > 0, there are at least [] primes between n2 and (n+1)2. The expression [x] denotes the integer part of x. |
Consider statement (B). Note that it is stronger than Legendre's conjecture (A) that is, (A) follows from (B).
On this page, we are going to perform a computational check of statement (B);
thus we will also check Legendre's conjecture (A) at the same time.
Note, however, that a direct computational check is not a proof.
We can only check a finite number of values, whereas the above statements involve an infinite number of values of n.
It seems extremely unlikely but still remotely possible that an abnormally big prime gap might invalidate
the above statements. For now, we do know that prime gaps that large are never observed up to 18-digit primes.
(We can say this with certainty because the largest gap
between any primes up to 18 digits is only 1442; this gap happens
between the primes 804212830686677669 and 804212830686679111.
The interval
Back to statement (B). This statement is suggested, in part, by the following observations:
(1) For integer m > 6776941, each interval (m4/3, (m+1)4/3) contains a prime
(generalized Legendre conjecture, case 4/3).
(2) For positive integers m and n, one can show that a single interval (n2, (n+1)2) contains at least [] intervals (m4/3, (m+1)4/3). (3) Combining (1) and (2), we can expect statement (B) to be valid for n large enough namely, for integer |
However, the n > 0 part of statement (B) does not seem to follow from anything
(other than a direct computational check).
So it is quite surprising that (B) apparently does hold for all positive n.
The table below presents a direct computational check of statement (B).
You can save this page locally, together with primefactors.js,
and re-run the check for any values of n;
just modify the assigned start
and stop
values for continuous range verification;
for example, showVerification(start=200,stop=300)
.minPrimes
variable.
(Search the code for minPrimes =
minPrimes = 1
,
we would check the classical Legendre's conjecture.)
Now that we know there are at least that many primes in the interval
How many primes? n n2 < primes < (n+1)2 √n expected actual OK/fail
Post Scriptum: Here are some additional hypotheses all of them appear to be true, too:
(C) For each integer n > 23, there are at least [1.5]
primes between n2 and (n+1)2.
(D) For each integer n > 137, there are at least [2] primes between n2 and (n+1)2. (E) For each integer n > 425, there are at least [3] primes between n2 and (n+1)2. Here, again, [x] denotes the integer part of x. We leave checking statements (C), (D), and (E) to the interested reader. |
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