Statistical Bias in the Distribution of Prime Pairs and Isolated Primes

Abstract

Computer experiments reveal that twin primes tend to center on nonsquarefree multiples of 6 more often than on squarefree multiples of 6 compared to what should be expected from the ratio of the number of nonsquarefree multiples of 6 to the number of squarefree multiples of 6 equal ${\pi }^2/3-1$, or ca 2.290. For multiples of 6 surrounded by twin primes, this ratio is 2.427, a relative difference of ca $6.0\%$ measured against the expected value. A deviation from the expected value of this ratio, ca $1.9\%$, exists also for isolated primes. This shows that the distribution of primes is biased towards nonsquarefree numbers, a phenomenon most likely previously unknown. For twins, this leads to nonsquarefree numbers gaining an excess of $1.2\%$ of the total number of twins. In the case of isolated primes, this excess for nonsquarefree numbers amounts to $0.4\%$ of the total number of such primes. The above numbers are for the first $10^{10}$ primes, with the bias showing a tendency to grow, at least for isolated primes.

7 pages

References in corpus (1)

• Unexpected biases in the distribution of consecutive primes