Lecture on Prime Numbers
CS300A: Technical Communications
Lecturer: Rajat Mittal Scribe by: Ujjawal Goyal
1. Why primes
(a) No one can divide it
(b) Every thing is made up of Prime numbers
2. No. of Prime numbers is Infinite Why? Lets see some proofs:
(a) Euclid’s (Proof from ”the book”)
Suppose they are finite and LetP1, P2, ..., Pn be all prime numbers.
What about the no. K=P1·P2·...·Pn+ 1.
IfPi divides K then its must divide 1 =>K is only divisible by 1 other than itself.
Hence, There exist another Prime no. not inP1, P2, ..., Pn. (b) Lagrange’s proof
Conclusion from Lagrange’s theorem: consider the sequence 20mod q, 21mod q, ... 2kmod q, if k is prime then all the elements present in the sequence must be multiple of k.
Suppose p is the largest prime and consider the number 2p−1. Let q be a prime that divides 2p−1.
2p ≡1 mod q.
Also by Fermat little’s theorem, 2q - 2≡0 mod q.
or, 2q−1 ≡1 mod q, here we get another value q-1 in the sequence 2k ≡1 mod q.
Therefore, by Lagrange’s Theorem p must dividesq−1. Sop < qwhich contradicts our assump- tion.
Preposition: a·b mod c = (a mod c)·(b mod c) mod c.
Proof: Let a = c·q1 +r1, where 0≤r1< candq1is some integer. a mod c =r1. Let b = c·q2+r2, where 0≤r2< candq2is some integer. b mod c =r2. LHS = a·b mod c, after putting a and b, we get LHS =r1·r2 mod c.
RHS = (a mod c)·(b mod c) mod c =r1·r2mod c.
Therefore RHS = LHS. proved.
(c) Erodes proof
Let the number of prime is finite. then the sequence
1
2+13+· · ·+p1
n converges.
So there exist a k such that
P
n≥k+1 1 pn ≤12. or,∀ NP
n≥k+1 N pn ≤ N2
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Lets divide N in two set Nbig andNsmall. such thatNbig +Nsmall = N.
N is big if∃pmm ≥k+1 andpmdivides N.
Nbig ≤P
n≥k+1 N pn ≤ N2.
N is small if all prime factors are smaller than pk+1. Nsmall can be written as an·b2n. Nsmall<2k·√
N. and since K is fixed, O(Nsmall) is√ N. From here we getNbig +Nsmall< N which contradicts our assumption.
Hence Number of primes are Infinite.
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