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Small differences between consecutive primes
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 26 February 2010
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Let pn denote the n-th prime number, and let
It follows from the prime number theorem that E ≤ 1. Erdős used a sieve argument to show that E < 1, and Rankin and Ricci gave the explicit estimates E ≤ 57/59 and E ≤ 15/16 respectively. A more powerful approach used by Hardy and Little-wood and by Rankin depended on hypotheses about the zeros of L-functions until Bombieri's Theorem was found. With its aid Bombieri and Davenport [1] proved that
A fuller history, with bibliography, is to be found in [1]
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- Copyright © University College London 1973
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