Multi-scale representation of integer sets: application to prime numbers

Abstract

Consider the partition of the set of natural numbers $\mathbb{N}$ into consecutive blocks, each containing $8^k$ integers. Denote these blocks by $P^{(k)}(j)$. Each block is partitioned into eight disjoint subsets $I_1,\dots ,I_8$, each containing $8^{k-1}$ consecutive integers. Define $\varphi (I_i)=1$ if $I_i$ contains at least one prime number, and $\varphi (I_i)=0$ otherwise. The integer $n=(\varphi (I_1)\varphi (I_2)\cdots \varphi (I_8){)}_2$, between 0 and 255, encodes the configuration of prime-containing subsets. For integers less than or equal to $m$, we study ${\pi }_m^{(k)}(n)$, the number of blocks $P^{(k)}(j)$ having configuration $n$. This article provides estimates of these quantities for every integer $k$. To achieve this goal, we introduce a multi-scale representation of integers for studying arithmetic properties of sets of integers. Information is organized as a hierarchy of nested sequences, where each level highlights a particular characteristic of the property under investigation. We apply this framework to the distribution of prime numbers. Although this work does not claim a breakthrough on this classical problem, the proposed multi-scale representation reveals structural features of the distribution of prime numbers. It maps natural numbers into hierarchical sequences taking values in $0,\dots ,255$, providing a compact representation that facilitates the analysis and visualization of the encoded property across different scales.