PRIMES AND THEIR DISTRIBUTION == 43- PROBLEMS 3.1 1. Ithas been conjectured that there are infinitely many primes of the form n® — 2. Exhibit five such primes. 2, Give an example to show that the following conjecture is not true; Every positive integer ‘can be written in the form p+ a®, where p is either a prime or 1, and a > 0. 3. Prove each of the assertions below: (a) Any prime of the form 3n +1 is also of the form Grn + 1, (b) Each integer of the form 3n + 2 has a prime factor of this form. (©) The only prime of the form n3 — 1 is 7. [dtint: Write? — 1 as (n — 1)(0? +0 + 1).] (@) The only prime p for which 3p + 1 is a perfect square is p = 5 (e) The only prime of the form x” — 4 is 5 4,|If p = 5 is a prime number, show that p? +2 is composite. [Hint: p takes one of the forms 6k + 1 or 6k + 5.] 5. (a) Given that p is a prime and p |", prove that p" | a" (b) If ged(a, &) = p, a prime, what are the possible values of ged(a” , b*), ged(a?,.b) and ged(a’ , b*)? 6. Establish each of the following statements: (a) Every integer of the form n* +4, with n > 1, is composite, [Hint: Write n* + 4 as a product of two quadratie factors.] (b) If n > 4 is composite, then n divides (n — 1). (c) Any integer of the form 8" + 1, where 1 > 1, is composite, (Hing: 2° +1/2 41) (@) Each integer m > 11 can be written as the sum of two composite numbers, [Hins: Ifnis even, say n = 2k, thenn — 6 = 2(k — 3); forn odd, consider the integer n-9] ind all prime numbers that divide 50!, Car > q = Sand pandq are both primes, prove that 24| p? — q?. (a) An unanswered question is whether there are infinitely many primes that are 1 more than a power of 2, such as 5 = 2? + 1, Find two more of these primes. (b) A more general conjecture is that there exist infinitely many primes of the form n? + 1: for example, 257 = 16? + 1. Exhibit five more primes of this type. 10. If p 4 5 is an odd prime, prove that either p® — 1 or p? +1 is divisible by 10. 11, Another unproven conjecture is that there are an infinitude of primes that are 1 Yess than a power of 2, such as 3 = 2? — 1. (a) Find four more of these primes. (b) If p = 2 — 1 is prime, show that fis an odd integer, except when k = [Hint: 3 | 4" — 1 for all n> 1.) Find the prime factorization of the integers 1234, 10140, and 36000. 13,]ifn > 1 is an integer not of the form 6k + 3, prove that n? + 2" is composite, [Hints Show that either 2 or 3 divides n? 4 2",] 44. It has been conjectured that every even integer can be written as the difference of two consecutive primes in infinitely many ways. For example, > @= 29-23 = 137 - 131 = 599-593 = 1019 — 1013 = ++ Express the integer 10 as the difference of two consecutive primes in 15 ways, 15. Prove that a positive integer a > 1 is a square if and only if in the canonical form of a all the exponents of the primes are even integers.PRIMES AND THEIR DaSTRIBUTION — 49° have been identified as primes (the last one in 2001). It is known that the only possible repunit primes R, for all n < 45000 are the seven numbers just indicated. No conjecture has been made as to the existence of any others. For a repunit R, to be prime, the subscript n must be a prime; that this is not a sufficient condition is shown by Rs = 111 =41- 271 Ry, = 1111111 = 239 - 4649 PROBLEMS 3.2 1. Determine whether the integer 701 is prime by testing all primes p < V701 as possible divisors. Do the same for the integer 1009. 2. Employing the Sieve of Eratosthenes, obtain all the primes between 100 and 200. 3. Given that p jn forall primes p = 3/n, show that n > | is either a prime or the product ‘of two primes. Hint: Assume to the contrary that n contains at least three prime factors.) ‘stablish the following facts: (a) 4/7 is irrational for any prime p. (b) Ifa > Oand Ya is rational, then 2/a must be an integer. (c) Forn > 2, Yn is irrational. [Hiins: Use the fact that 2” > n.] 5. Show that any composite three-digit number must have a prime factor less than or equal to 31. 6. Fill in any missing details in this sketch of a proof of the infinitude of primes: Assume that there are only finitely many primes, Say p, p2.-.., Pa- Let A be the product of any rr of these primes and put B = pi py + p,/A. Then each p, divides either A or B, but not both. Because A+ B > 1, A + B has a prime divisor different from any of the p,, which is a contradiction, 7, Modify Euclid’s proof that there are infinitely many primes by assuming the existence of a largest prime p and using the integer N = p! + | to arrive ata contradiction. 8, Give another proof of the infinitude of primes by assuming that there are only finitely many primes, say), p2,..., Pp, and using the following integer to arrive at a contradiction: N P2P3->* Pat PrPs:* Pa toes + PiP2o-* Prt a) Prove that ifn > 2, then there exists a prime p satisfying» < p 1, show that every prime divisor of n! + 1 is an odd integer that is greater than n, 10. Let g, be the smallest prime that is strictly greater than P, = pj p2+-- pp + 1. Ithas been conjectured that the difference q, —(p) p2 --~ Pn) is always a prime. Confirm this for the first five values of n. Al. Ti pp denotes the nth prime number, put dy = py+1 — Pa» An open question is whether the equation d, = d,,.: has infinitely many solutions, Give five solutions, 12. Assuming that p, is the nth prime number, establish each of the following statements: (a) py > 2n — 1 forn > 5, (b) None of the integers P, = pi pr +--+ py + 1 is a perfect square. [Hint: Each P, is of the form 4k +3 forn > 1.] plies p |,PRIMES AND THEIR DISTRIBUTION = S'7 coefficients that takes on just prime values for integral m, We assume that such a polynomial f (2) actually does exist and argue until a contradiction is reached. Let F(n) = agn* + ag_in!! +--+ 4 ann? + ayn Fay where all the coefficients ap, a1, .... ap are integers, and ay # 0. Fora fixed value of (no), P = Fito} isa prime number, Now, for any integer ¢, we consider the following alng + tp ++ + ay(ng +p) + ap = (ayn +--+ yr +49) + pQte) = Flo) + pQe) P+ pQ<)= pil + Q()) where Q(#) is a polynomial in 1 having integral coefficients. Our reasoning shows that p | (no + tp); hence, from our own assumption that /(n) takes on only prime values, f (to + tp) = p for any integer r. Because a polynomial of degree k can- not assume the same value more than & times, we have obtained the required contradiction. Recent years have seen a measure of success in the search for prime-producing functions. W. H. Mills proved (1947) that there exists a positive real number r such that the expression f (1) = [r?"] is prime for n = 1, 2.3, ... (the brackets indicate the greatest integer function). Needless to say, this is strictly an existence theorem and nothing is known about the actual value of r. Mills’s function does not produce all the primes, PROBLEMS 3.3 1. Verify that the integers 1949 and 1951 are twin primes. 2. (a) If 1 is added to a product of twin primes, prove that a perfect square is always obtained, (b) Show that the sum of twin primes p and p + 2 isdivisible by 12, provided that p > 3. 3. Find all pairs of primes p and g satisfying p —q = 3. 4. Sylvester (1896) rephrased the Goldbach conjecture: Every even integer 2n greater than 4 is the sum of two primes, one larger than n/2 and the other less than 32/2. Verify this version of the conjecture for all even integers between 6 and 76. 5. In 1752, Goldbach submitted the following conjecture to Euler: Every odd integer can be written in the form p + 2a, where p is either a prime or I and a > 0. Show that the integer 5777 refutes this conjecture. 6 |Prove that the Goldbach conjecture that every even integer greater than 2 is the sum of ‘bwo primes is equivalent to the statement that every integer greater than 5 is the sum of three primes, (Hint: If 2a —2 = py + pz, then In = py + py +2and 2n +1 =p) + p43.) 7. & conjecture of Lagrange (1775) asserts that every odd integer greater than 5 can be written as a sum p; +2ps, where p,, p2 are both primes, Confirm this for all odd integers through 75. 8. Given a positive integer n, it can be shown that there exists an even integer a that is representable as the sum of two odd primes in # different ways. Confirm that the integers