Probabilistic number theory is a subfield of number theory, which explicitly uses probability to answer questions of number theory. One basic idea underlying it is that different prime numbers are, in some serious sense, like independent random variables. This however is not an idea that has a unique useful formal expression.
The founders of the theory were Paul Erdős, Aurel Wintner and Mark Kac during the 1930s, one of the most intense periods of investigation in analytic number theory. The Erdős–Wintner theorem and the Erdős–Kac theorem on additive functions were foundational results.
Read more about Probabilistic Number Theory: See Also
Famous quotes containing the words number and/or theory:
“In many ways, life becomes simpler [for young adults]. . . . We are expected to solve only a finite number of problems within a limited range of possible solutions. . . . It’s a mental vacation compared with figuring out who we are, what we believe, what we’re going to do with our talents, how we’re going to solve the social problems of the globe . . .and what the perfect way to raise our children will be.”
—Roger Gould (20th century)
“Thus the theory of description matters most.
It is the theory of the word for those
For whom the word is the making of the world,
The buzzing world and lisping firmament.”
—Wallace Stevens (1879–1955)