Mathematical Investigation of GoldBach’s Conjecture

___________________________
In Partial Fulfilment
Of the Requirements for
BSEM 21
___________________________

Passed by:
Aronico, John Kerby
Bayugo, Mylene
Madrazo, Julius
Peji, Gracielle Ann
Supnet, Ernell
Tinaco, Ephraim
BSEM 21 (Group 5)
___________________________

To be passed on to
Prof. Claudine Obniala

April 27, 2023

I. Goldbach’s Conjecture
Christian Goldbach was a Prussian mathematician
connected with some important research mainly in number
theory; he also studied law and took an interest in and a role in
the Russian court.
Born: March 18, 1690, Königsberg
Died: 1764, Moscow, Russia
Education: University of Königsberg

II. Theory/Problem
Goldbach first proposed the conjecture that bears his name in a letter to the Swiss
mathematician Leonhard Euler in 1742. He claimed that “every number greater than 2 is an
aggregate of three prime numbers.” Because mathematicians in Goldbach’s day considered 1 a
prime number (prime numbers are now defined as those positive integers greater than 1 that are
divisible only by 1 and themselves), Goldbach’s conjecture is usually restated in modern terms as:
“Every even natural number greater than 2 is equal to the sum of two prime
numbers.”
For example,
4=2+2
6=3+3
8=3+5
10 = 3 + 7 = 5 + 5
12 = 5 + 7
14 = 3 + 11 = 7 + 7

III. Proof/Evidence
Goldbach's conjecture is one of the oldest and best-known unsolved problems in number
theory and all of mathematics. Although this conjecture is being considered as true, and yet out of
countless mathematician that tried to solve this conjecture. This conjecture is still not have been
proven. Despite their efforts contributing to expanding and making progress on this conjecture, it
remains unsolved. Since most prime numbers are odd, there are many different combinations to
explore, particularly with larger numbers.
For example 118, it can be as:
118=5+113, 11+107, 17+101, 29+89, 47+71, 59+59.
And then 2566, has 37 such pairs of prime numbers. They are:
17+2549, 23+2543, 89+2477, 107+2459, 149+2417, 167+2399, 173+2393, 227+2339,
233+2333, 257+2309, 269+2297, 293+2273, 353+2213, 359+2207, 467+2099, 479+2087,
503+2063, 563+2003, 569+1997, 587+1979, 593+1973, 617+1949, 653+1913, 659+1907,
677+1889, 719+1847, 743+1823, 857+1709, 929+1637, 947+1619, 953+1613, 983+1583,
1013+1553, 1193+1373, 1259+1307, 1277+1289, 1283+1283

To understand it easily let’s have a look

at this Goldbach partitions of even numbers
from 4 to 96. The open circles on the
intersections of the purple and pink lines
represent the prime pairs that total the n value
on the vertical column. It appears that in
general, the number of prime pairs increases
with increasing n, but there are many
exceptions.
To prove Goldbach’s conjecture, we
must show that for any given even integer n
there is at least one pair (px, py) such that both
px, and py are prime and px +py = n. Since all
primes except 2 are odd, we will only consider
odd integers and we will exclude any pair
containing 1 since 1 is not considered a prime
number.

The following table shows some examples of the values of n and the number of pairs.

Goldbach's comet is the name given to a plot of the function g(E), the so-called Goldbach
function. The Goldbach function is studied in relation to Goldbach's conjecture. The function g(E)
is defined for all even integers E>2 to be the number of different ways in which E can be expressed
as the sum of two primes.
 The number of ways to write an even number n as the sum of two primes (4 ≤ n ≤ 1,000).

The number of ways to write an even number n as the sum of two primes (4 ≤ n ≤
1,000,000).

This Goldbach’s comet become a illustration in this conjecture and to widen its scope. Here
we could determine the same outcome that as the n value increase, the number of prime pairs also
increase. This illustration is used to easily represent this conjecture since its very hard to list out
every possible pair in tabular form. That’s why discovering about the Goldbach’s function and
comet is a big helpful in this conjecture.
 Now with the advancement of technology solving this conjecture became much easier.
With the help of programming in computer, we could test even the much more higher values in
this conjecture that is impossible to do manually. With the advent of computers, many more values
of n have been checked; T. Oliveira e Silva ran a distributed computer search that has verified the
conjecture for n ≤ 4 × 10*18 (and double-checked up to 4 × 10*17) as of 2013. One record from
this search is that 3,325,581,707,333,960,528 is the smallest number that cannot be written as a
sum of two primes where one is smaller than 9781. Here are more examples of verified and double
check of silva.

This collective data from 2003 to 2013 reflects that even though the number of prime pairs
are increasing with the n, there’s still a restriction or pattern on it. Such that it differs to every even
number, that making it very hard to test this conjecture. This is the limitation of computer in finding
out the value of this conjecture. That’s why its very important the technological advancement
because it helps into reaching goals that human cant physically.
Aside from focusing this conjecture, some mathematicians chose to come up new problems
that are related in this conjecture. Hoping that by solving problems close enough with Goldbach’s
conjecture, they could relate it and solve together. Similar problems to Goldbach's conjecture exist
in which primes are replaced by other particular sets of numbers, such as the squares:
• Hardy and Littlewood listed as their Conjecture I: "Every large odd number (n > 5) is the
sum of a prime and the double of a prime" (Mathematics Magazine, 66.1 (1993): 45–47).
This conjecture is known as Lemoine's conjecture and is also called Levy's conjecture.
 • The Goldbach conjecture for practical numbers, a prime-like sequence of integers, was
stated by Margenstern in 1984, and proved by Melfi in 1996: every even number is a sum
of two practical numbers.
• It was proven by Lagrange that every positive integer is the sum of four squares. See
Waring's problem and the related Waring–Goldbach problem on sums of powers of primes.
• A strengthening of the Goldbach conjecture proposed by Harvey Dubner states that every
even integer greater than 4,208 is the sum of two twin primes. Only 34 even integers less
than 4,208 are not the sum of two twin primes. Dubner has verified computationally that
this list is complete up to 2×1010. A proof of this stronger conjecture would not only imply
Goldbach's conjecture, but also the twin prime conjecture.

IV. Conclusion
Goldbach’s remains unproven because of it deals with a large number of values, basically
infinity. Since there’s still known formula in finding how many prime pairs there is in every even
n values. The only way is to manually or thru programming solving it. Also, there’s a factor of
exceptions and restriction values that differs to each value, that making it hard into solving this
conjecture. Lastly the main reason is the lack of focus on the prime number itself. Prime number
is not much focus in mathematics unlike even, odd, or divisible numbers. This conjecture may
impossible to prove right now, but in distinct future, with some radically new ideas or approach it
might finally prove.
References:

Dutta, S. (2022, May 10). 279-year-old math problem that no one could solve. Medium. Retrieved
April 27, 2023, from https://www.cantorsparadise.com/279-year-old-math-problem-that-no-
one-could-solve-4bae6e95249f

Encyclopædia Britannica, inc. (2023, March 14). Christian goldbach. Encyclopædia Britannica.
Retrieved April 27, 2023, from https://www.britannica.com/biography/Christian-Goldbach

Fliegel, Henry F.; Robertson, Douglas S.; "Goldbach's Comet: the numbers related to Goldbach's
Conjecture”; Journal of Recreational Mathematics, v21(1) 1-7, 1989.
Margenstern, M. (1984). "Results and conjectures about practical numbers". Comptes rendus de
l'Académie des Sciences. 299: 895–898.
"MathFiction: No One You Know (Michelle Richmond)"
Melfi, G. (1996). "On two conjectures about practical numbers". Journal of Number Theory. 56:
205–210. doi:10.1006/jnth.1996.0012.
Sloane, N. J. A. (ed.). "Sequence A007534 (Even numbers that are not the sum of a pair of twin
primes)". The On-Line Encyclopedia of Integer Sequences. OEIS Foundation
."TWIN PRIME CONJECTURES" (PDF). oeis.org.
Tomás Oliveira e Silva, Goldbach conjecture verification. Retrieved 26 April 2023.

Watanabe, K. A. (2018, November 2). Definitive general proof of Goldbach's conjecture.

[1811.02415v1] Definitive General Proof of Goldbach's conjecture. Retrieved April 27,
2023, from http://export.arxiv.org/abs/1811.02415v1