# How many number of primes below n such that they are sum of consecutive primes

Given a number n, how many number of primes are there such that each of them is equal to $$\sum_{k=0}^z p_k$$ where z is some natural number and $p_k$ is nth prime number i.e, $p_0=2$?

For example, if n=20 , there are 2 primes 5,17 , they satisfy the above rules as follows:

5 = 2+ 3

17 = 2 + 3 + 5 + 7

So , is there any formula or any efficient method to identify how many such primes are there below a huge number n?

• How large is $n$? – Marcus Andrews Jul 29 '16 at 15:36
• oeis.org/A013918 should be of interest. – Barry Cipra Jul 29 '16 at 15:44
• I'm confused about your use of $n$ and $k$. Assuming $p_k$ is the $k$'th prime, your first sentence contains an $n$ that plays no role... (Though I think you mean to use $n$ as an upper bound.) – Daan Michiels Jul 29 '16 at 15:46
• @Marcus Stuhr upto 12billion – Pruthvi Raj Jul 29 '16 at 15:47
• @PruthviRaj, for the number you cite, $12$ billion, the answer can be found in the table linked to at the OEIS entry I mentioned: There are $2182$ primes less than $12$ billion that are the sum of the first $k$ primes for some $k$. Note, however, that the OEIS entry counts $2$ among them, whereas you seem not to. (You point to $5=2+3$ and $17=2+2+5+7$ as the only primes less than $20$ that are the sum of consecutive primes.) If you don't count $2$, then the answer to your question with $12$ billion as the upper bound is $2181$. – Barry Cipra Jul 29 '16 at 15:57

A heuristic approach: OEIS A007504 lists the sums of the first primes and says the $k^{\text{th}}$ entry is about $\frac 12k^2\log k$ The maximum $k$ that you allow comes from $\frac 12k^2\log k=n$. We can do one step of fixed point iteration to say $\log k \approx \log \sqrt {2n}, k \approx \sqrt{\frac {2n}{\log \sqrt {2n}}}$. Now if we say the chance of a number $q$ being prime is $\frac 1{\log q}$ we get an approximation up to $n$ that is $$\sum_{i=2}^{\sqrt{\frac {2n}{\log \sqrt {2n}}}}\frac 1{\log( \frac 12i^2\log i)}$$ where I started at $2$ because it blows up at $1$
• unfortunately we will probably never be able to prove it ? I always wondered if there is any chance to prove that a wide class of sequence really have an asymptotic density $\frac{1}{\ln a_n}$ for the primality of its elements – reuns Jul 29 '16 at 16:14
• @Ross Millikan , wow thanks , is there anyway to improve it's accuracy?, currently it gives $2168$ for $12billion$ whereas the actual answer should be $2182$ – Pruthvi Raj Jul 29 '16 at 16:33
• There are some more terms listed in the OEIS entry and you can do some more iteration to get a better upper limit. If you actually solve $\frac 12k^2 \log k=12E9$ you get an upper limit of 47222 while my approximation gives 44813. That may solve your problem. Using the additional terms gives an upper limit of 45490 per Wolfram Alpha – Ross Millikan Jul 29 '16 at 17:36
• Using $45490$ as the upper limit in the above sum gives $2197.61$ per Alpha The approach to asymptotics of prime number things often seems to be rather slow. – Ross Millikan Jul 29 '16 at 20:09