Cousin prime

In number theory, cousin primes are prime numbers that differ by four. Compare this with twin primes, pairs of prime numbers that differ by two, and sexy primes, pairs of prime numbers that differ by six.

The cousin primes (sequences Template:OEIS2C and Template:OEIS2C in OEIS) below 1000 are:

(3, 7), (7, 11), (13, 17), (19, 23), (37, 41), (43, 47), (67, 71), (79, 83), (97, 101), (103, 107), (109, 113), (127, 131), (163, 167), (193, 197), (223, 227), (229, 233), (277, 281), (307, 311), (313, 317), (349, 353), (379, 383), (397, 401), (439, 443), (457, 461), (463,467), (487, 491), (499, 503), (613, 617), (643, 647), (673, 677), (739, 743), (757, 761), (769, 773), (823, 827), (853, 857), (859, 863), (877, 881), (883, 887), (907, 911), (937, 941), (967, 971)

Properties

The only prime belonging to two pairs of cousin primes is 7. One of the numbers Template:Math will always be divisible by 3, so Template:Math is the only case where all three are primes.

An example of a large proven cousin prime pair is Template:Math for

$p=4111286921397\times 2^{66420}+1$

which has 20008 digits. In fact, this is part of a prime triple since Template:Mvar is also a twin prime (because Template:Math is also a proven prime).

Template:As of, the largest-known pair of cousin primes was found by S. Batalov and has 86,138 digits. The primes are:

$p=(29571282950\times (2^{190738}-1)+4)\times 2^{95369}-1$

$p+4=(29571282950\times (2^{190738}-1)+4)\times 2^{95369}+3$

If the first Hardy–Littlewood conjecture holds, then cousin primes have the same asymptotic density as twin primes. An analogue of Brun's constant for twin primes can be defined for cousin primes, called Brun's constant for cousin primes, with the initial term (3, 7) omitted, by the convergent sum:

$B_4=(\frac{1}{7}+\frac{1}{11})+(\frac{1}{13}+\frac{1}{17})+(\frac{1}{19}+\frac{1}{23})+\cdots .$

Using cousin primes up to 2⁴², the value of Template:Math was estimated by Marek Wolf in 1996 as

$B_4\approx 1.1970449$

This constant should not be confused with Brun's constant for prime quadruplets, which is also denoted Template:Math.

The Skewes number for cousin primes is 5206837 (Template:Harvtxt).

References

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