Prime Quadruplets and Jump Conditions on Arithmetic Functions

Abstract

We provide progress on the characterization of composite integers $n$ that satisfy the jump conditions $\phi (n+12)=\phi (n)+12$ and $\sigma (n+12)=\sigma (n)+12$ simultaneously. While it is known that prime quadruplets $(p,p+2,p+6,p+8)$ generate solutions $n=p(p+8)$, the complete characterization remains an open conjecture. We prove that this characterization is complete when $n$ and $n+12$ are both squarefree semiprimes, and that no solution $n$ can be a prime power. Furthermore, a complete search up to $10^{12}$ resulted in no counterexamples to the conjecture. If this conjecture is proven true, and there are infinitely many such solutions, then it can be proved that there are infinitely many prime quadruplets.

8 pages, 1 table