prime number A prime number (or a prime) is a natural number greater than 1 that is not a Product (mathematics), product of two smaller natural numbers. A natural number greater than 1 that is not prime is called a composite number. For example, 5 is prime ...

''p'' is called a Chen prime if ''p'' + 2 is either a prime or a product of two primes (also called a semiprime). The

even number In mathematics, parity is the property of an integer of whether it is even or odd. An integer is even if it is a multiple of two, and odd if it is not.. For example, −4, 0, 82 are even because \begin -2 \cdot 2 &= -4 \\ 0 \cdot 2 &= 0 \\ 41 ...

2''p'' + 2 therefore satisfies

Chen's theorem In number theory, Chen's theorem states that every sufficiently large even number can be written as the sum of either two primes, or a prime and a semiprime (the product of two primes). History The theorem was first stated by Chinese mathema ...

. The Chen primes are named after

Chen Jingrun Chen Jingrun (; 22 May 1933 – 19 March 1996), also known as Jing-Run Chen, was a Chinese mathematician who made significant contributions to number theory, including Chen's theorem and the Chen prime. Life and career Chen was the third son i ...

, who proved in 1966 that there are infinitely many such primes. This result would also follow from the truth of the

twin prime conjecture A twin prime is a prime number that is either 2 less or 2 more than another prime number—for example, either member of the twin prime pair (41, 43). In other words, a twin prime is a prime that has a prime gap of two. Sometimes the term ''twin pr ...

as the lower member of a pair of

twin prime A twin prime is a prime number that is either 2 less or 2 more than another prime number—for example, either member of the twin prime pair (41, 43). In other words, a twin prime is a prime that has a prime gap of two. Sometimes the term ''twin p ...

s is by definition a Chen prime. The first few Chen primes are : 2, 3, 5, 7, 11, 13, 17, 19, 23, 29, 31, 37, 41, 47, 53, 59, 67, 71, 83, 89, 101, … . The first few Chen primes that are not the lower member of a pair of

s are :2, 7, 13, 19, 23, 31, 37, 47, 53, 67, 83, 89, 109, 113, 127, ... . The first few non-Chen primes are :43, 61, 73, 79, 97, 103, 151, 163, 173, 193, 223, 229, 241, … . All of the supersingular primes are Chen primes. Rudolf Ondrejka discovered the following 3 × 3

magic square In recreational mathematics, a square array of numbers, usually positive integers, is called a magic square if the sums of the numbers in each row, each column, and both main diagonals are the same. The 'order' of the magic square is the number ...

of nine Chen primes: , the largest known Chen prime is 2996863034895 × 2^1290000 − 1, with 388342 decimal digits. The sum of the

reciprocal Reciprocal may refer to: In mathematics * Multiplicative inverse, in mathematics, the number 1/''x'', which multiplied by ''x'' gives the product 1, also known as a ''reciprocal'' * Reciprocal polynomial, a polynomial obtained from another pol ...

s of Chen primes converges.

Further results

Chen also proved the following generalization: For any

even Even may refer to: General * Even (given name), a Norwegian male personal name * Even (surname) * Even (people), an ethnic group from Siberia and Russian Far East **Even language, a language spoken by the Evens * Odd and Even, a solitaire game wh ...

integer An integer is the number zero (), a positive natural number (, , , etc.) or a negative integer with a minus sign ( −1, −2, −3, etc.). The negative numbers are the additive inverses of the corresponding positive numbers. In the languag ...

''h'', there exist infinitely many primes ''p'' such that ''p'' + ''h'' is either a prime or a

semiprime In mathematics, a semiprime is a natural number that is the product of exactly two prime numbers. The two primes in the product may equal each other, so the semiprimes include the squares of prime numbers. Because there are infinitely many prime ...

Green Green is the color between cyan and yellow on the visible spectrum. It is evoked by light which has a dominant wavelength of roughly 495570 nm. In subtractive color systems, used in painting and color printing, it is created by a combin ...

and Tao showed that the Chen primes contain infinitely many

arithmetic progression An arithmetic progression or arithmetic sequence () is a sequence of numbers such that the difference between the consecutive terms is constant. For instance, the sequence 5, 7, 9, 11, 13, 15, . . . is an arithmetic progression with a common differ ...

s of length 3. Binbin Zhou generalised this result by showing that the Chen primes contain arbitrarily long arithmetic progressions.Binbin Zhou
The Chen primes contain arbitrarily long arithmetic progressions
''Acta Arithmetica'' 138:4 (2009), pp. 301–315.

Notes

:1.Chen primes were first described by Yuan, W
On the Representation of Large Even Integers as a Sum of a Product of at Most 3 Primes and a Product of at Most 4 Primes
Scienca Sinica 16, 157-176, 1973.

References

External links

The Prime Pages
* * * {{Prime number classes Classes of prime numbers