Efficient prime counting and the Chebyshev primes

preprint2011arXivOpen access

Abstract

The function $ε(x)=\mbox{li}(x)-π(x)$ is known to be positive up to the (very large) Skewes' number. Besides, according to Robin's work, the functions $ε_θ(x)=\mbox{li}[θ(x)]-π(x)$ and $ε_ψ(x)=\mbox{li}[ψ(x)]-π(x)$ are positive if and only if Riemann hypothesis (RH) holds (the first and the second Chebyshev function are θ(x)=∑p≤xlog⁡pθ(x)=\sum_{p \le x} \log p and ψ(x)=∑n=1xΛ(n)ψ(x)=\sum_{n=1}^x Λ(n), respectively, $\mbox{li}(x)$ is the logarithmic integral, μ(n)μ(n) and Λ(n)Λ(n) are the Möbius and the Von Mangoldt functions). Negative jumps in the above functions εε, εθε_θ and εψε_ψ may potentially occur only at x+1∈Px+1 \in \mathcal{P} (the set of primes). One denotes $j_p=\mbox{li}(p)-\mbox{li}(p-1)$ and one investigates the jumps jpj_p, jθ(p)j_{θ(p)} and jψ(p)j_{ψ(p)}. In particular, jp<1j_p<1, and jθ(p)>1j_{θ(p)}>1 for p<1011p<10^{11}. Besides, jψ(p)<1j_{ψ(p)}<1 for any odd $p \in \mathcal{\mbox{Ch}}$, an infinite set of so-called {\it Chebyshev primes } with partial list {109,113,139,181,197,199,241,271,281,283,293,313,317,443,449,461,463,…}\{109, 113, 139, 181, 197, 199, 241, 271, 281, 283, 293, 313, 317, 443, 449, 461, 463, \ldots\}. We establish a few properties of the set $\mathcal{\mbox{Ch}}$, give accurate approximations of the jump jψ(p)j_{ψ(p)} and relate the derivation of $\mbox{Ch}$ to the explicit Mangoldt formula for ψ(x)ψ(x). In the context of RH, we introduce the so-called {\it Riemann primes} as champions of the function ψ(pnl)−pnlψ(p_n^l)-p_n^l (or of the function θ(pnl)−pnlθ(p_n^l)-p_n^l ). Finally, we find a {\it good} prime counting function $S_N(x)=\sum_{n=1}^N \frac{μ(n)}{n}\mbox{li}[ψ(x)^{1/n}]$, that is found to be much better than the standard Riemann prime counting function.

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