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Conjecture

Brocard's Conjecture

Number Theory

Brocard's conjecture holds that there are at least four prime numbers between the square of the nth prime and the square of the (n+1)th prime, for every n of 2 or more. It is named after Henri Brocard and is widely believed true, but remains unproven. This description is adapted from Wikipedia contributors under CC BY-SA 4.0; changes were made. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

Facts
Statement
Using the prime counting function, which gives the number of primes up to a given value, the conjecture claims that the count of primes up to the square of the (n+1)th prime, minus the count of primes up to the square of the nth prime, is at least four, for every n of two or more. Equivalently, there are at least four primes strictly between the squares of any two consecutive primes other than the primes two and three. 1
Progress Toward Resolution
No unconditional proof of the conjecture is known. Legendre's conjecture, if proved, would only give a weaker version of the result. A full proof would follow from any of three other unproven statements: Oppermann's conjecture, Cramer's conjecture, or the Riemann Hypothesis, each of which implies Brocard's conjecture for sufficiently large n if it were itself proved. 1
Classification
Resolution Status
Open 1
Prize Status
Prize Status (category)
No Prize Offered 1
Sources
1. Brocard's Conjecture (Wikipedia)
Wikimedia Foundation
  • Lead section
    Brocard's conjecture is the conjecture that there are at least four prime numbers between (pn)2 and (pn+1)2, where pn is the nth prime number, for every n>=2
  • Mathematical statement section, opening sentence
    Let pn be the nth prime, and let pi(x) be the number of prime numbers <= x. Formally, Brocard's conjecture claims:
  • Conditional results section, Oppermann's Conjecture subsection
    As shown above, Oppermann's conjecture directly implies Brocard's conjecture for large enough n, which constitutes a proof of Brocard's conjecture.
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