Does there exist a positive irrational number α, such that for any positive integer n...

Roland Waters

Roland Waters

Answered question

2022-06-20

Does there exist a positive irrational number α, such that for any positive integer n the number n α is not a prime?

Answer & Explanation

Abigail Palmer

Abigail Palmer

Beginner2022-06-21Added 30 answers

This is called a Beatty sequence. There will indeed always be a prime in the sequence. The bound for the OP's sequence (provided α > 1) is
p L 35 16 ϵ α 2 ( 1 ϵ ) p m + l 1 + ϵ
where L = log ( 2 α ), p n denotes the numerator of the n th convergent to the regular continued fraction expansion of α, and m is the unique integer such that p m L 16 α 2 < p m + 1 . ϵ can be chosen arbitrarily small, but l depends on ϵ.

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