Speaker: Larry Guth (MIT)

Title: Prime numbers: probability, physics, and computation

Abstract:

This talk is about how prime numbers are distributed.  As we look at bigger numbers, primes slowly get rarer.  We can measure this precisely by counting how many primes there are in different intervals.  There is a simple formula, discovered around 1800, that gives a pretty good approximation for the number of primes in an interval.  This simple formula isn't perfect, so we can study how the true number of primes deviates from the approximation.

 
Do the deviations look random, like stock prices?
Do they behave predictably like pendulums?
How accurately can we predict the number of primes in an interval using an algebraic formula?

 
This talk is aimed at a broad mathematical audience. 

Reception following talk in room 2-290.