Twin Primes

It is an unanswered question whether there are infinitely many pairs of

twin primes; that is, pairs of successive odd integers p and p + 2 that
are both primes.

Here are some examples of twin primes:

569 599 617 641 659 809 821 827 857 1949
571 601 619 643 661 811 823 829 859 1951

Math 106 Number Theory 1 / 5

Goldbach Conjecture
Every even integer greater than 4 can be written as a sum of two odd
primes.

16 = 3 + 13 = 5 + 11
18 = 5 + 13 = 7 + 11
20 = 3 + 17 = 7 + 13
22 = 3 + 19 = 5 + 17 = 11 + 11
24 = 5 + 19 = 7 + 17 = 11 + 13

Math 106 Number Theory 2 / 5

All odd integers are either of the form 4n + 1 or 4n + 3. The first few
distribution of primes into this form are presented below:
3 7 11 19 23 31 43 47 59 67 71 79 83 4n + 3
5 13 17 29 37 41 53 61 73 89 4n + 1
The general impression that primes of the form 4n + 3 are more
abundant than are those of the form 4n + 1. The function πa,b (x)
counts the number of primes of the form p = an + b not exceeding x.
Illustration: π4,1 (89) = 10 and π4,3 (89) = 13

Math 106 Number Theory 3 / 5

Lemma
The product of two or more integers of the form 4n + 1 is of the same
form.
Proof: It is sufficient to consider the product of just two integers. Let
0
k = 4n + 1 and k = 4m + 1. So,
0
k(k ) = (4n + 1)(4m + 1)
= 16nm + 4m + 4n + 1
= 4(4nm + m + n) + 1

which is of the desired form.

Math 106 Number Theory 4 / 5

Theorem
There are an infinite number of primes of the form 4n + 3.

Proof: Assume that there exist only finitely many primes of the form
4n + 3; say q1 , q2 , · · · , qs . Consider the positive integer

N = 4q1 q2 · · · qs − 1 = 4(q1 q2 · · · qs − 1) + 3.

Since N > 1, N = r1 r2 · · · rt be its prime factorization. Since N is odd,

rk 6= 2 for all 1 ≤ k ≤ t. So, each rk is either of the form 4n + 1 or
4n + 3. By the Lemma and the form of N , N must contain at least one
prime factor ri of the form 4n + 3. So, ri = ql for some 1 ≤ l ≤ s. This
implies that ri |(4q1 q2 · · · qs − N ), and so ri |1 which is a contradiction.
Therefore, there are infinitely many primes of the form 4n + 3.

Math 106 Number Theory 5 / 5