The completeness conjecture for MacMahon prime-detecting expressions

Let Ma(n)M_a(n) be the partition functions defined by

Ma(n)=0<s1<s2<<san=m1s1++masam1ma.M_a(n)=\sum_{\substack{0<s_1<s_2<\dots<s_a\\ n=m_1s_1+\dots+m_as_a}}m_1\cdots m_a.

Let P(x):=(p1(x),p2(x),,pa(x))Z[x]a\vec{P}(x):=(p_1(x),p_2(x),\dots,p_a(x))\in\mathbb{Z}[x]^a be a vector of relatively prime integer polynomials. For integers n2n\geq 2, suppose that

E(n)=p1(n)M1(n)+p2(n)M2(n)++pa(n)Ma(n)0,E(n)=p_1(n)M_1(n)+p_2(n)M_2(n)+\dots+p_a(n)M_a(n)\geq 0,

and that E(n)E(n) vanishes precisely when nn is prime. The completeness conjecture. Then E(n)E(n) is a Q[n]\mathbb{Q}[n]-linear combination of the entries in the table of known prime-detecting expressions. This conjectures that the listed MacMahon partition-function expressions generate all prime-detecting expressions of this type; the paper presents the claim as motivated by computer evidence, with no resolution supplied.

Sources & referencesView supporting material

Primary source

William Craig, Jan-Willem van Ittersum and Ken Ono, “Integer partitions detect the primes”, arXiv:2405.06451 (2024).

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