The ‘positive aspects of a negative solution’ (the recursive unsolvability of Hilbert’s 10th problem) include the discovery of Diophantine representations of the set P of primes. What is the rank of P, namely the smallest possible number, r, of unknowns in a polynomial representing P ? Siegel’s theorem on integral points on curves (1929) hands us a revealing characterisation of the Diophantine subsets of Z which can be represented in terms of a single unknown; thereby, since 19th century results about the density of P entail that P does not meet that characterisation, we get the lower rank bound r >=2. We also show that the Diophantine set consisting of those integers κ > 3 which meet the congruence (2 κ choose k) ≡ 2 mod κ^3 has rank not exceeding 7. As a consequence, the least known upper rank bound for P, namely r<=9 as found by Yu. V. Matiyasevich in 1977, can be lowered to r<=7 if the converse of Wolstenholme’s theorem (1862) holds, as conjectured by J. P. Jones.
Titolo: | On the Diophantine complexity of the set of prime numbers | |
Autori: | ||
Data di pubblicazione: | 2016 | |
Serie: | ||
Abstract: | The ‘positive aspects of a negative solution’ (the recursive unsolvability of Hilbert’s 10th problem) include the discovery of Diophantine representations of the set P of primes. What is the rank of P, namely the smallest possible number, r, of unknowns in a polynomial representing P ? Siegel’s theorem on integral points on curves (1929) hands us a revealing characterisation of the Diophantine subsets of Z which can be represented in terms of a single unknown; thereby, since 19th century results about the density of P entail that P does not meet that characterisation, we get the lower rank bound r >=2. We also show that the Diophantine set consisting of those integers κ > 3 which meet the congruence (2 κ choose k) ≡ 2 mod κ^3 has rank not exceeding 7. As a consequence, the least known upper rank bound for P, namely r<=9 as found by Yu. V. Matiyasevich in 1977, can be lowered to r<=7 if the converse of Wolstenholme’s theorem (1862) holds, as conjectured by J. P. Jones. | |
Handle: | http://hdl.handle.net/11368/2887382 | |
ISBN: | 978-1-57586-953-7 | |
Appare nelle tipologie: | 2.1 Contributo in Volume (Capitolo,Saggio) |
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