Primes in arithmetic progression: Difference between revisions

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In [[number theory]], '''primes in arithmetic progression''' are any [[sequence]] of at least three [[prime number]]s that are consecutive terms in an [[arithmetic progression]]. An example is the sequence of primes (3, 7, 11), which is given by <math>a_n = 3 + 4n</math> for <math>0 \le n \le 2</math>.

According to the [[Green–Tao theorem]], there exist [[arbitrarily large|arbitrarily long]] sequencesarithmetic of primesprogressions in arithmeticthe progressionsequence of primes. Sometimes the phrase may also be used about primes which belong to an arithmetic progression which also contains composite numbers. For example, it can be used about primes in an arithmetic progression of the form <math>an + b</math>, where ''a'' and ''b'' are [[Coprime integers|coprime]] which according to [[Dirichlet's theorem on arithmetic progressions]] contains infinitely many primes, along with infinitely many composites.

For [[integer]] ''k'' ≥ 3, an '''AP-''k''''' (also called '''PAP-''k''''') is any sequence of ''k'' primes in arithmetic progression. An AP-''k'' can be written as ''k'' primes of the form ''a''·''n'' + ''b'', for fixed integers ''a'' (called the common difference) and ''b'', and ''k'' consecutive integer values of ''n''. An AP-''k'' is usually expressed with ''n'' = 0 to ''k''&nbsp;&minus;&nbsp;1. This can always be achieved by defining ''b'' to be the first prime in the arithmetic progression.