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'F\"urstenberg's proof of the infinitude of primes'
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| Title of object: |
F\"urstenberg's proof of the infinitude of primes |
| Canonical Name: |
FurstenbergsProofOfTheInfinitudeOfPrimes |
| Type: |
Proof |
| Created on: |
2004-10-07 12:24:45 |
| Modified on: |
2006-05-13 12:35:33 |
| Classification: |
msc:11A41 |
Revision comment (for changes between this and next version):
| Changes for correction #10259 ('typo'). |
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Content:
F\"urstenberg's proof (\cite{fberg}, \cite{priben}) that there are infinitely many primes is an amusing and beautiful blend of elementary number theory and point-set topology.
Consider the arithmetic progression topology on the positive integers, where a basis of open sets is given by subsets of the form $U_{a,b}=\{n\in\Z^+|n\equiv b\mod a\}$. Arithmetic progressions themselves are by definition open, and in fact clopen, since
\begin{align*}
U_{a,b}^c=\bigcup_{c\neq b} U_{a,c}
\end{align*}
where the union is taken over a set of distinct residue classes modulo $a$. Hence the complement of $U_{a,b}$ is a union of open sets and so is open, so $U_{a,b}$ itself is closed (and hence clopen).
Consider the set $U=\cup_p U_{p,0}$, where the union runs over all primes $p$. Then the complement of $U$ in $\Z^+$ is the single element $\{1\}$, which is clearly not an open set (every open set is infinite in this topoloy). Thus $U$ is not closed, but since we have written $U$ as a union of closed sets and a \emph{\PMlinkescapetext{finite}} union of closed sets is again closed, this implies that there must be infinitely many terms appearing in that union, i.e. that there must be infinitely many distinct primes.
\begin{thebibliography}{9}
\bibitem{fberg}
Furstenberg, Harry,
\emph{On the infinitude of primes},
American Mathematical Monthly, Vol. 62, 1955, p. 353.
\bibitem{priben}
Ribenboim, Paulo. \emph{The New Book of Prime Number Records}. Springer, 1996. p. 10
\end{thebibliography} |
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