There Are Infinitely Many Prime Twins

fustflum writes "R. F. Arenstorf from Vanderbilt University has presented a 38-page possible proof of the twin-prime conjecture using methods from classical analytic number theory. The paper is on arxiv.org and is freely available to the public. Twin primes are pairs of primes where both p and p + 2 are prime. "It is conjectured that there are an infinite number of twin primes ... but proving this remains one of the most elusive open problems in number theory." More information about twin primes can be found on Mathworld."

Comments

Re:Proof

[benna]

I think Pi is much more mysterious. I mean think about it, one of the most simple shapes a has a number with an infanite number of seeminly random dicimals in it.

Re:Proof

[nizo]

If you haven't read Contact (no seeing the movie doesn't count) then quick go get a copy. What I have to wonder is, how do we know it goes on forever? The answer is we will never know (unless it starts repeating in some big way, which doesn't seem likely), because we can always calculate more digits for it. Thus we can only saw for sure that so far we know it isn't a finite number :-)

My brain hurts

[billcopc]

Maybe I'm being an ignorant genius, but isn't it just plain obvious that there is an infinite number of primes, thus an infinite number of twin primes. Why ? Because there is an infinite number of possible numbers. Sure, primes get farther distanced from each other as the number increases in magnitude, but there's always one around the corner.

I wish mathematicians spent more time on matters of current affair, like gas prices! This kind of 'discovery' bullcrap was fine in the egyptian era where school was nonexistent and everyone was a fricking ignorant unless they happened to suck some royalty's appendage the right way. Today it's obsolete, those who do not understand either don't care, or lack the requisite synaptic ability to function adequately in modern times.