Rosser's Theorem

DOWNLOAD Mathematica Notebook RossersTheorem

The prime number theorem shows that the nth prime number p_n has the asymptotic value

 p_n∼nlnn
(1)

as n->infty (Havil 2003, p. 182). Rosser's theorem makes this a rigorous lower bound by stating that

 p_n>nlnn
(2)

for n>1 (Rosser 1938). This result was subsequently improved to

 p_n>n(lnn+lnlnn-c),
(3)

where c=3/2 (Rosser and Schoenfeld 1975). The constant c was subsequently reduced to c=1.0072629 (Robin 1983). Massias and Robin (1996) then showed that c=1 was admissible for 1<n<=exp(598) and n>=exp(1800). Finally, Dusart (1999) showed that c=1 holds for all n>1 (Havil 2003, p. 183). The plots above show p_n (black), nlnn (blue), and n(lnn+lnlnn-1) (red).

RossersTheoremDifference

The difference between p^^_n=n(lnn+lnlnn-1) and p_n is plotted above. The slope of the difference taken out to n=10^7 is approximately 0.46.

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