OU blog

Personal Blogs

Ian Wright

Prime Number Theorem

Visible to anyone in the world
Edited by Ian Wright, Wednesday 24 April 2013 at 23:00

So now I know how it's all proved.  Not yet halfway through M829 and we've reached the climax.  Well perhaps not, but I undersand it all in principle - I think.

In M823 we covered a few equivalent statements to the actual theorem.  The prime number theorem states that pi of x tilde operator x divided by log of x for large x .  This can be shown to be equivalent to psi of x tilde operator x or psi sub one of x tilde operator one divided by two times x squared where psi of x equals n ary summation over n less than or equals x over normal cap lamda of n and psi sub one is its integral.  Oh and normal cap lamda of n is Mangoldt's function where normal cap lamda of n equals log of p whenever n equals p super m and zero otherwise.

Next, an integral expression is constructed that is equal to psi sub one of x .  This expression contains the zeta function and its derivative in the form zeta super prime of x solidus zeta of x .  Using the residue theorem, and knowledge of the function's poles, this can be integrated and shown, as x approaches infinity, to equal one divided by two times x squared .

And the prime number theorem is proved.  That only took about 4 and a half years of studying maths to understand.

Permalink
Share post