A089582 From Gilbreath's conjecture.

2, 0, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 2, 2, 0, 2, 2, 0, 0, 2, 2, 2, 0, 0, 0, 2, 2, 0, 2, 0, 0, 0, 2, 2, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 2, 2, 0, 2, 2, 0, 2, 0, 0, 2, 0, 2, 2, 2, 2, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 2, 0, 0, 2, 2, 0, 0, 2, 2, 0, 2, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 2, 0, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 0, 0, 2, 2, 0, 0, 2, 2, 0, 0, 0, 0, 2, 2, 2, 2, 0, 0, 0

Offset

1,1

Comments

Let d_0(n) = p_n, the n-th prime, for n = 1 and let d_k+1 (n) = | d_k(n) - d_k(n+1) | for k = 0, n = 1. A well known conjecture, usually ascribed to Gilbreath but actually due to Proth in the 19th century, says that d_k(1) = 1 for all k >= 1. This sequence gives d_k(2) for all k >1 and for the conjecture to be true, this sequence must contain only 0's and 2's. Although not necessary to the conjecture's validity, the 0's and 2's are of roughly equal count.

The paper cited below by A. M. Odlyzko reports on a computation that verified this conjecture for k = p(10^13) ~ 3 * 10^11. It also discusses the evidence and the heuristics about this conjecture. It is very likely that similar conjectures are also valid for many other integer sequences.

Number of zeros in the first 10^n terms: 3, 53, 520, 4995, 49737, 500177, ... - Robert G. Wilson v, Sep 29 2014

References

R. K. Guy, Unsolved Problems in Number Theory, 2nd Ed., Springer-Verlag, NY, Berlin, 1994, A10.

Clifford A. Pickover, The Math Book, From Pythagoras to the 57th Dimension, 250 Milestones in the History of Mathematics, Sterling Publ., NY, 2009, page 410.

P. Ribenboim, The new book of prime number records, 3rd edition, Springer-Verlag, New York, NY, pp. xxiv+541, ISBN 0-387-94457-5. 1995. MR 96k:11112

Links

Table of n, a(n) for n=1..105.

Chris Caldwell, The Prime Glossary, Goldbach's conjecture.

Andrew M. Odlyzko, Iterated Absolute Values of Differences of Consecutive Primes, Math. Comp. 61 (1993), 373-380.

N. J. A. Sloane, My favorite integer sequences, in Sequences and their Applications (Proceedings of SETA '98).

Eric Weisstein's World of Mathematics, Gilbreath's Conjecture.

Example

See the triangle in A036262.

Maple

A089582 := proc(n)
    A036262(n, 2) ;
end proc:
seq(A089582(n), n=1..80) ; # R. J. Mathar, May 10 2023

Mathematica

mx = 105; lst = {}; t = Array[ Prime, mx+2]; Do[t = Abs@ Differences@ t; AppendTo[lst, t[[2]]], {n, mx}]; lst

Crossrefs

See A036262 for an abbreviated table of absolute differences.

Sequence in context: A044945 A238005 A296509 * A044946 A044947 A044948

Adjacent sequences: A089579 A089580 A089581 * A089583 A089584 A089585

Keyword

easy,nonn

Author

Robert G. Wilson v and R. K. Guy, Nov 08 2003

Status

approved