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New structures in primes and Diophantine approximation

Objective

Prime numbers have fascinated mathematicians for centuries, and have given rise to some of the oldest and most notorious open problems. Despite their central status, many fundamental aspects of the primes remain beyond the reach of current techniques.

This project aims to make progress on central questions related to the distribution of primes. The goal is to develop new versatile techniques that can provide inroads to the fundamental problems at the heart of the subject, building on recent breakthroughs of the PI.

There are two key approaches to studying the distribution of primes. ‘Multiplicative’ techniques relate structured questions to the zeros of an L-function. The strength of results typically depends on progress toward the Riemann Hypothesis, but these techniques work well on questions with special structure connected to L-functions. In contrast ‘additive’ techniques use sieve methods to study primes. They have the advantage of being very flexible, but often cannot give a strong a result on their own. In favourable situations, additive techniques (particularly ‘Type I/II sums’) can be used to reduce an ‘unstructured’ question about primes to a ‘structured’ one, which can then be solved using multiplicative techniques.

This project aims to further our understanding of both the ‘multiplicative’ techniques related to L-functions and the ‘additive’ techniques connected to prime-detecting sieves, as well as the links between them.

A common theme of the project is to classify barriers to progress, and then develop new techniques to rule out such a barrier. This involves using ideas from other areas—such as combinatorics, geometry, probability, automorphic forms, and harmonic analysis—to create new tools to address these challenges. The proposal outlines a series of intermediate problems designed to test and develop these new methods, demonstrating the power of novel approaches to break through long-standing historical barriers in questions related to primes.

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Keywords

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Topic(s)

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Funding Scheme

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HORIZON-ERC - HORIZON ERC Grants

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Call for proposal

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(opens in new window) ERC-2025-COG

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Host institution

THE CHANCELLOR, MASTERS AND SCHOLARS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD
Net EU contribution

Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.

€ 1 995 717,00
Address
WELLINGTON SQUARE UNIVERSITY OFFICES
OX1 2JD Oxford
United Kingdom

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Region
South East (England) Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire Oxfordshire
Activity type
Higher or Secondary Education Establishments
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Total cost

The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.

€ 1 995 717,50

Beneficiaries (1)

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