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Referring to his proof of Bertrand's postulate, Ramanujan (1919) states a generalization: "From this we easily deduce that pi(x) - pi(x/2) >= 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, ..., if x >= 2, 11, 17, 29, 41, ..., respectively." Since the a(n) are prime (by their minimality), I call them "Ramanujan primes."

See the additional references and links mentioned in A143227.

2n log 2n < a(n) < 4n log 4n for n >= 1, and prime(2n) < a(n) < prime(4n) if n > 1. Also, a(n) ~ prime(2n) as n -> infinity.

Shanta Laishram has proved that a(n) < prime(3n) for all n >= 1.

a(n) - 3n log 3n is sometimes positive, but negative with increasing frequency as n grows since a(n) ~ 2n log 2n. There should be a constant m such that for n >= m we have a(n) < 3n log 3n.

A good approximation to a(n) = R_n for n in [1..1000] is A162996(n) = round(k*n * (log(k*n)+1)), with k = 2.216 determined empirically from the first 1000 Ramanujan primes, which approximates the {k*n}-th prime number which in turn approximates the n-th Ramanujan prime and where abs(A162996(n) - R_n) < 2 * sqrt(A162996(n)) for n in [1..1000]. Since R_n ~ prime(2n) ~ 2n * (log(2n)+1) ~ 2n * log(2n), while A162996(n) ~ prime(k*n) ~ k*n * (log(k*n)+1) ~ k*n * log(k*n), A162996(n) / R_n ~ k/2 = 2.216/2 = 1.108 which implies an asymptotic overestimate of about 10% (a better approximation would need k to depend on n and be asymptotic to 2). - Daniel Forgues, Jul 29 2009

Let p_n be the n-th prime. If p_n >= 3 is in the sequence, then all integers (p_n+1)/2, (p_n+3)/2, ..., (p_(n+1)-1)/2 are composite numbers. - Vladimir Shevelev, Aug 12 2009

Denote by q(n) the prime which is the nearest from the right to a(n)/2. Then there exists a prime between a(n) and 2q(n). Converse, generally speaking, is not true, i.e., there exist primes outside the sequence, but possess such property (e.g., 109). - Vladimir Shevelev, Aug 14 2009

The Mathematica program FasterRamanujanPrimeList uses Laishram's result that a(n) < prime(3n).

See sequence A164952 for a generalization we call a Ramanujan k-prime. - Vladimir Shevelev, Sep 01 2009

From Jonathan Sondow, May 22 2010: (Start)

About 46% of primes < 19000 are Ramanujan primes. About 78% of the lesser of twin primes < 19000 are Ramanujan primes.

About 15% of primes < 19000 are the lesser of twin primes. About 26% of Ramanujan primes < 19000 are the lesser of twin primes.

A reason for the jumps is in Section 7 of "Ramanujan primes and Bertrand's postulate" and in Section 4 of "Ramanujan Primes: Bounds, Runs, Twins, and Gaps". (See the arXiv link for a corrected version of Table 1.)

See Shapiro 2008 for an exposition of Ramanujan's proof of his generalization of Bertrand's postulate. (End)

The (10^n)-th R prime: 2, 97, 1439, 19403, 242057, 2916539, 34072993, 389433437, .... - Robert G. Wilson v, May 07 2011, updated Aug 02 2012

The number of R primes < 10^n: 1, 10, 72, 559, 4459, 36960, 316066, 2760321, .... - Robert G. Wilson v, Aug 02 2012

a(n) = R_n = R_{0.5,n} in "Generalized Ramanujan Primes."

All Ramanujan primes are in A164368. - Vladimir Shevelev, Aug 30 2011

If n tends to infinity, then limsup(a(n) - A080359(n-1)) = infinity; conjecture: also limsup(a(n) - A080359(n)) = infinity (cf. A182366). - Vladimir Shevelev, Apr 27 2012

Or the largest prime x such that the number of primes in (x/2,x] equals n. This equivalent definition underlines an important analogy between Ramanujan and Labos primes (cf. A080359). - Vladimir Shevelev, Apr 29 2012

Research questions on R_n - prime(2n) are at A233739, and on n-Ramanujan primes at A225907. - Jonathan Sondow, Dec 16 2013

The questions on R_n - prime(2n) in A233739 have been answered by Christian Axler in "On generalized Ramanujan primes". - Jonathan Sondow, Feb 13 2014

Srinivasan's Lemma (2014): prime(k-n) < prime(k)/2 if R_n = prime(k) and n > 1. Proof: By the minimality of R_n, the interval (prime(k)/2,prime(k)] contains exactly n primes and so prime(k-n) < prime(k)/2. - Jonathan Sondow, May 10 2014

For some n and k, we see that A168421(k) = a(n) so as to form a chain of primes similar to a Cunningham chain. For example (and the first example), A168421(2) = 7, links a(2) = 11 = A168421(3), links a(3) = 17 = A168421(4), links a(4) = 29 = A168421(6), links a(6) = 47. Note that the links do not have to be of a form like q = 2*p+1 or q = 2*p-1. - John W. Nicholson, Feb 22 2015

Extending Sondow's 2010 comments: About 48% of primes < 10^9 are Ramanujan primes. About 76% of the lesser of twin primes < 10^9 are Ramanujan primes. - Dana Jacobsen, Sep 06 2015

Sondow, Nicholson, and Noe's 2011 conjecture that pi(R_{m*n}) <= m*pi(R_n) for m >= 1 and n >= N_m (see A190413, A190414) was proved for n > 10^300 by Shichun Yang and Alain Togbé in 2015. - Jonathan Sondow, Dec 01 2015

Berliner, Dean, Hook, Marr, Mbirika, and McBee (2016) prove in Theorem 18 that the graph K_{m,n} is prime for n >= R_{m-1}-m; see A291465. - Jonathan Sondow, May 21 2017

Okhotin (2012) uses Ramanujan primes to prove Lemma 8 in "Unambiguous finite automata over a unary alphabet." - Jonathan Sondow, May 30 2017

Sepulcre and Vidal (2016) apply Ramanujan primes in Remark 9 of "On the non-isolation of the real projections of the zeros of exponential polynomials." - Jonathan Sondow, May 30 2017

Axler and Leßmann (2017) compute the first k-Ramanujan prime for k >= 1 + epsilon; see A277718, A277719, A290394. - Jonathan Sondow, Jul 30 2017

a(n) is the same as: Smallest integer x > 0 such that the number of unitary-prime-divisors of x! equals n.

Let p_n be the n-th prime. If p_n>3 is in the sequence, then all integers (p_n-1)/2, (p_n-3)/2, ..., (p_(n-1)+1)/2 are composite numbers. - Vladimir Shevelev, Aug 12 2009

For n >= 3, denote by q(n) the prime which is the nearest from the left to a(n)/2. Then there exists a prime between 2q(n) and a(n). The converse, generally speaking, is not true; i.e., there exist primes that are outside the sequence, but possess such property (e.g., 131). - Vladimir Shevelev, Aug 14 2009

See sequence A164958 for a generalization. - Vladimir Shevelev, Sep 02 2009

a(n) is the n-th Labos prime.

The Ramanujan primes possess the following property:

If p = prime(n) > 2, then all numbers (p+1)/2, (p+3)/2, ..., (prime(n+1)-1)/2 are composite.

The sequence equals all primes with this property, whether Ramanujan or not.

All Ramanujan primes A104272 are in the sequence.

Every lesser of twin primes (A001359), beginning with 11, is in the sequence. - Vladimir Shevelev, Aug 31 2009

109 is the first non-Ramanujan prime in this sequence.

A very simple sieve for the generation of the terms is the following: let p_0=1 and, for n>=1, p_n be the n-th prime. Consider consecutive intervals of the form (2p_n, 2p_{n+1}), n=0,1,2,... From every interval containing at least one prime we remove the last one. Then all remaining primes form the sequence. Let us demonstrate this sieve: For p_n=1,2,3,5,7,11,... consider intervals (2,4), (4,6), (6,10), (10,14), (14,22), (22,26), (26,34), ... . Removing from the set of all primes the last prime of each interval, i.e., 3,5,7,13,19,23,31,... we obtain 2,11,17,29, etc. - Vladimir Shevelev, Aug 30 2011

This sequence and A194598 are the mutually wrapping up sequences:

A194598(1) <= a(1) <= A194598(2) <= a(2) <= ...

From Peter Munn, Oct 30 2017: (Start)

The sequence is the list of primes p = prime(k) such that there are no primes between prime(k)/2 and prime(k+1)/2. Changing "k" to "k-1" and therefore "k+1" to "k" produces a definition very similar to A164333's: it differs by prefixing an initial term 3. From this we get a(n+1) = prevprime(A164333(n)) = A151799(A164333(n)) for n >= 1.

The sequence is the list of primes that are not the largest prime less than 2*prime(k) for any k, so that - as a set - it is the complement relative to A000040 of the set of numbers in A059788.

{{2}, A166252, A166307} is a partition.

(End)

The primes of A080359 larger than 3 all have the property that the integers in the interval selected by halving the value of the preceding prime and halving their own value are all composite. This sequence here collects the primes that are not in A080359 but still share this property of the prime-free subinterval.

Other formulation: Suppose a prime p >= 5 lies in the interval (2p_k, 2p_(k+1)), where p_n is the n-th prime; p is called isolated if the interval (2p_k, 2p_(k+1)) does not contain any other primes.

The sequence is connected with the following classification of primes: The first two primes 2,3 form a separate set of primes; let p >= 5 be in interval(2p_k, 2p_(k+1)), then 1)if in this interval there are primes only more than p, then p is called a right prime; 2) if in this interval there are primes only less than p, then p is called a left prime; 3) if in this interval there are prime more and less than p, then p is called a central prime; 4) if this interval does not contain other primes, then p is called an isolated prime. In particular, the right primes form sequence A166307 and all Ramanujan primes (A104272) more than 2 are either right or central primes; the left primes form sequence A182365 and all Labos primes (A080359) greater than 3 are either left or central primes.

From Peter Munn, Jun 01 2023: (Start)

The isolated primes are prime(k) such that k-1 and k occur as consecutive terms in A020900.

In the tree of primes described in A290183, the isolated primes label the nodes with no sibling nodes.

Conjecture: a(n)/A000040(n) is asymptotic to 9. This would follow from my conjectured asymptotic proportion of 1's in A102820 (the first differences of A020900).

(End)

Let p_k be the k-th prime. A prime p is in the sequence iff the interval of the form (2p_k, 2p_(k+1)), containing p, also contains a prime less than p. The sequence is connected with the following classification of primes: the first two primes 2,3 form a separate set of primes; let p >= 5 be in the interval (2p_k, 2p_(k+1)), then 1) if in this interval there are only primes greater than p, then p is called a right prime; 2) if in this interval there are only primes less than p, then p is called a left prime; 3) if in this interval there are primes both greater and less than p, then p is called a central prime; 4) if this interval does not contain other primes, then p is called an isolated prime. In particular, the right primes form sequence A166307, and all Ramanujan primes (A104272) greater than 2 are either right or central primes; the left primes form sequence A182365, and all Labos primes (A080359) greater than 3 are either left or central primes; the central primes form A166252 and the isolated primes form A166251. [Vladimir Shevelev, Oct 10 2009] [Sequence reference updated by Peter Munn, Jun 01 2023]

Disjoint union of A166252 and A182365. - Peter Munn, Jun 01 2023 [an edited version of a contribution by Vladimir Shevelev in 2009]

For every n>=1, A104272(n) >= A080359(n), and the sequence shows where the inequality becomes an equality.

Let prime(m) < a(n)/2 < prime(m+1); then there exist primes p

For example, a(2) = 71, 31 < a(2)/2 < 37 and intervals (62,71), (71,74) contain the primes p = 67 and q = 73 respectively.

Let us call a prime p compatible with another prime q, if the intervals (p/2,q/2) and (p,q], if q>p, (or intervals (q/2,p/2) and (q,p], if qVladimir Shevelev, Apr 25 2012]