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I am preparing a paper on the topic of prime-representing functions, and one of the referees that reviewed my paper suggested me to include references to the following state of the art article: "Prime representing functions", K. Matomäki, Acta Math. Hungar.,128,no.4 (2010) 307--314.

The abstract of the article is:

We construct prime-representing functions. In particular we show that there exist real numbers $\alpha \gt 1$ such that:

$$\lfloor \alpha^{2^n} \rfloor$$

is prime for all $n\in \Bbb N$. Indeed the set consisting of such numbers $\alpha$ has the cardinality of the continuum.

So basically is a refinement of Mills'constant that is, to my surprise, able to provide a prime representing function working in the quadratic intervals $[n^2,(n+1)^2]$ (if I did not understand wrongly, this is for big enough $n$).

My doubt regarding this is: as far as I can recall, Mills'constant is based on powers of three, $\lfloor A^{3^n} \rfloor$, and we still do not know if Legendre's conjecture is true or not, so there is not proof for a constant capable of making a prime-representing function like $\lfloor A^{2^n} \rfloor$. But according to the results of Matomäki, the study of the state of the art of prime gaps (and assuming that the Riemann hypothesis is true , as it is stated in the paper) makes possible to develop such power-of-two-based Mills-like constant.

So my question is: does the existence of such power of two Mills-like constant imply that Legendre's conjecture is true? where is the trick, or where is the point I misunderstood? maybe can the constant exist, but Legendre's conjecture can still be false without being a contradiction? Thank you!

Update 2017/06/06.

My perception is that Matomäki's proof shows that the existence of the constant implies that at least exist one infinite set of quadratic intervals $[N^2,(N+1)^2]$, indeed associated to the primes generated by the constant, each one of them containing at least one prime (indeed the one generated by the constant). So my guessing is that it is safe to say that (1) Still Legendre's conjecture is not proved to be true for all the existing quadratic intervals $[N^2,(N+1)^2]$, (2) Legendre's conjecture is true for those intervals associated to the primes generated by Matomäki's constant. A confirmation or not of this reasoning would be very appreciated.

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  • $\begingroup$ @orlp isn't it??? sure there is a trick, but I can not see it as well... $\endgroup$
    – iadvd
    Jun 1, 2017 at 1:24
  • $\begingroup$ @orlp: What I have read is that if Legendre's conjecture is true, then you can find an $\alpha$ for the "middle exponent" of $2$. But I have never heard the converse, that is, I have never heard of a proof that a prime generating function with a middle exponent of 2 (as presented in the Matomaki paper) implies Legendres conjecture. $\endgroup$ Jun 1, 2017 at 1:24
  • $\begingroup$ @MarkFischler yeah, that is the point I think I am missing, but in the other hand, I also did not hear the opposite of your phrase as well: a proof that a prime generating function with a middle exponent of $2$ does not imply Legendre's conjecture. $\endgroup$
    – iadvd
    Jun 1, 2017 at 1:26
  • $\begingroup$ @orlp I doubt if it the same logic could be applied,but I am not an expert: in the case of the elaboration of the classic Mills's constant,the demonstration implies a manipulation of the prime gaps (in those days Ingham's bound was the best one)that led Mills to the demonstration of the existence of a prime in $[n,(n+1)^3]$ for a big enough $n$. So it is required the existence of the prime for the constant to exist.And if the constant can not exist, then there is not a prime in the interval (for big $n$).They are linked,but that is my perception,I would really enjoy reading a good explanation. $\endgroup$
    – iadvd
    Jun 1, 2017 at 1:39
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    $\begingroup$ I now understand my confusion, and it's really silly. I was constantly working with $[p, (p+1)^2]$, but Legendre's conjecture is $[p^2, (p+1)^2]$. Now that is out of the way I see no reason why this paper would imply Legendre's conjecture. $\endgroup$
    – orlp
    Jun 1, 2017 at 2:34

2 Answers 2

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The Legendre conjecture

for every $n$ there is a prime $ p \in [n^2,(n+1)^2]$

is the same as

for every $a_0 \ge 3$ there exists $\alpha \in [a_0,a_0+1]$ such that $a_n = \lfloor \alpha^{2^n} \rfloor$ is prime for every $n \ge 1$

This is because for every $n$ and for every $k \in [a_n^2,(a_n+1)^2]$, we can refine $\alpha$ without changing $a_0, \ldots, a_n$ to obtain $$a_{n+1} = \lfloor \alpha^{2^n} \rfloor = k$$

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  • $\begingroup$ may I ask two questions: 1) is it floor $\lfloor \alpha^{2^n}\rfloor$ what you wanted to write or you wrote ceil instead of floor on purpose? 2) does your explanation imply that the opposite is not true? e.g. if $\lfloor \alpha^{2^n}\rfloor$ exists then it implies that Legendre is true. Thank you for your time! $\endgroup$
    – iadvd
    Jun 1, 2017 at 3:19
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    $\begingroup$ @iadvd I thought you said $\lceil \alpha^{2^n} \rceil$, it works the same way with $\lfloor \alpha^{2^n} \rfloor$ $\endgroup$
    – reuns
    Jun 1, 2017 at 3:23
  • $\begingroup$ I think better said would be that for every $n$, there exists a prime $p \in (n^2, (n + 1)^2)$ since $n^2$ and $(n+1)^2$ are obviously not prime. $\endgroup$
    – Mr Pie
    Jan 13, 2018 at 12:28
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I wrote Professor Matomäki (thank you very much for your time and kind response!), and she kindly gave me the following explanation that I just have formatted to write the answer (basically yes, Legendre's conjecture is true for those intervals):

The correspondence is the other way round, the paper uses the fact that Legendre's conjecture is true for most $N$, which is Lemma $7$ in the paper. That's the crucial ingredient which allows to take a power of $2$ in place of $3$ (or in place of $\frac{40}{19}$ following from Baker-Harman-Pintz on prime gaps).

Here is the aforementioned Lemma $7$:

enter image description here

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