|
Since the formula is being applied twice (once with -5 and once with +5) to each prime generated, each prime may have at most two "children". So if p=2, then its children are 6*2-5 = 7, and 6*2+5 = 17. When p=37 there is but one child 6*37+5=227 because 6*37-5=217 which is (7 * 31) and therefore not a prime. Essentially a tree of primes is being built which is at best binary:
..........|-5=37 x6
..........|......|+5=227 x6
..........|..............|+5=1367
...|-5= 7 x6
...|......|..............|-5=1657
...|......|......|-5=277 x6
...|......|......|.......|+5=1667 x6
...|......|......|................|.........|-5=60037
...|......|......|................|+5=10007 x6
...|......|+5=47 x6
2 x6
...|.....................|-5=3457 x6
...|.....................|........|.........|-5=124477
...|.....................|........|+5=20747 x6
...|.............|-5=577 x6
...|.............|.......|+5=3467 x6
...|.............|................|+5=20807 x6
...|.............|..........................|+5=124847
...|......|-5=97 x6
...|......|......|.......|-5=3517 x6
...|......|......|.......|........|+5=21107
...|......|......|+5=587 x6
...|......|..............|........|-5=21157
...|......|..............|-5=3527 x6
...|+5=17 x6
..........|+5=107 x6
..................|.......|-5=3877
..................|+5=647 x6
The 6p+/-5 tree for the root prime 2 is 7 generations deep, and has a population of 28 nodes (including 2 itself).
The choice of 2 as the root of this tree, 6 as the coefficient, and 5 as the +/-offset are not arbitrary. Performing this analysis for the first 1,000 primes for all combinations of coefficient (2 to 32) and offset (1 to 31), demonstrates that only 6p+/-5 and 10p+/-3 (see A086322) ever produce a tree with this many nodes on it. All other prime trees are smaller. 4p+/-3 produces a 25 node tree when p=2, 12p+/-5 produces a 22 node tree when p=2, and 28p+/-15 and 30p+/-7 produce 21 node trees when p=953 and 13 respectively.
Note that the most populous tree formed need not be the deepest, since a single generation can produce 1 or 2 children for each parent. The deepest tree is 4p+/-3 which is 11 generations deep when p=2. These results can be viewed at the link provided.
|