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Research notes on every problem, and a library of the papers behind them. Built from the open erdos repository.

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Claim. For every constant c2>0c_2>0 there is a constant c1=c1(c2)>0c_1=c_1(c_2)>0 such that, for all sufficiently large xx, there are more than c1log⁡xc_1\log x consecutive primes pk<pk+1<⋯<pk+r<xp_k<p_{k+1}<\dots<p_{k+r}<x whose successive gaps pk+i+1−pk+ip_{k+i+1}-p_{k+i} all exceed c2c_2; since the primes increase, every two of them then differ by more than c2c_2. This is Theorem 3 of P. Erdős, On some applications of Brun's method, Acta Univ. Szeged. Sect. Sci. Math. 13 (1949), 57–63, stated there with constants c5c_5 (the gap) and c6=c6(c5)c_6=c_6(c_5) (the run length [c6log⁡n][c_6\log n]). The proof counts the pairs of consecutive primes below nn at distance at most c5c_5 by Schnirelmann's sieve bound, O(n/(log⁡n)2)O(n/(\log n)^2), and compares that count with π(n)\pi(n): the small gaps are too few to break every run of [c6log⁡n][c_6\log n] primes when c6c_6 is small in terms of c5c_5. The library's [[../library/primes/erdos_1949_applications_brun_s_method/_index|card for the paper]] records the theorem beside the paper's two results on the least prime in a progression.

Covers. The instances of Problem 238 with c1c_1 below a threshold that depends on c2c_2: for every c2>0c_2>0 the answer is yes whenever 0<c1<c6(c2)0<c_1<c_6(c_2). The problem asks whether the answer is yes for every pair c1,c2>0c_1,c_2>0, that is, whether the threshold can be removed; Theorem 3 does not reach that, and the site records the problem as open.

Acceptance. The paper is refereed: it appeared in the journal Acta Universitatis Szegediensis, Sectio Scientiarum Mathematicarum, volume 13 (1949), pages 57–63. The curator of erdosproblems.com, Thomas Bloom, records in the site's commentary that Erdős proved the statement for every c2>0c_2>0 when c1>0c_1>0 is small enough in terms of c2c_2; the site's label for the problem is OPEN, so that commentary credits the partial result without settling the problem, and it is not listed as acceptance evidence.

Depends on. Nothing on this wiki; the argument is the paper's own.