Wednesday, 29 January 2025

Another missing sequence

Today, looking again through OEIS, I noticed I could create the following sequence:

5, 67, 5, 13, 7, 17, 11, 37, 11, 31, 13, 29, 17, 61, 17, 37, 19, 41, 23, 127, 23, 139, 31, 53, 29, 109, 29, 61, 31, 71, 97, 199, 37, 73, 37, 83, 41, 157, 41, 167, 43, 89, 47, 181, 47, 97, 151, 101, 53, 307, 53, 109, 61, 113, 59, 229, 59, 127, 61, 131, ...,

Tabulated, this sequence is:
n k Representation
2 5 101two
3 67 2111three
4 5 101four
5 13 23five
6 7 11six
7 17 23seven
8 11 13eight
9 37 41nine
10 11 11
11 31 2911
12 13 1112
13 29 2313
14 17 1314
15 61 4115
16 17 1116
17 37 2317
18 19 1118
19 41 2319
20 23 1320
21 127 6121
22 23 1122
23 139 6123
24 31 1724
25 53 2325
26 29 1326
27 109 4127
28 29 1128
29 61 2329
30 31 1130
31 71 2931
32 97 3132
33 199 6133
34 37 1337
35 73 2335
36 37 1136
37 83 2937
38 41 1338
39 157 4139
40 41 1140
41 167 4341
42 43 1142
43 89 2343
44 47 1344
45 181 4145
46 47 1146
47 97 2347
48 151 3748
49 101 2349
50 53 1350
51 307 6151
52 53 1152
53 109 2353
54 61 1754
55 113 2355
56 59 1356
57 229 4157
58 59 1158
59 127 2959
60 61 1160
61 131 2961
Each member of the sequence [the second column] is the smallest prime greater than n whose base-n expansion is also a valid decimal expansion of a prime.

Without the requirement to be bigger than the base, every member for n greater than 2 would be 2 itself.

Although it is normally difficult to write bases larger than 35 (if it be assumed O and 0 are not distinct as I have always done) and it is not easy to establish a standard convention for them, the numbers in the above table can be written easily without differences of convention. This is because the decimal digits are a subset of the digits for any larger base, so that a basic decimal representation is also possible for any larger base, and this is the objective behind this sequence.

Looking at the list, one notices a clear pattern by which odd bases give larger k than even bases — the opposite of the pattern noted for smallest weakly prime number at OEIS A186995. However, the reasoning is the same as that for A186995 — that in an odd base there exist more possibilities for the last digit of a prime, although certain digit combinations which yield decimal expansions of primes cannot do so in many odd bases.

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