Zulip Chat Archive

Stream: new members

Topic: Interest in contributing Chebyshev’s Theorem (PNT Precursor)


Ashton J (Oct 16 2025 at 23:36):

Hello! This is my first time ever posting to this board.

I have been using Lean/Matlib for the past 2 years, and wanted to learn how to contribute.

Specifically, my most recent project has required me to re-formalize "Chebyshev’s Theorem" as a weaker form of the Prime Number Theorem. It is complete, it compiles and runs, but is perhaps a bit messier than I would like, and I am unaware of the style guides that official adoption requires.

I would love to learn how to contribute. I am an undergraduate student, and have little experience working with a community such as this.

I will refrain from posting the full code here now, as I am not sure if this is the best place to post this.

Thank you all for your hard work!

-Ashton

Bryan Gin-ge Chen (Oct 16 2025 at 23:46):

Welcome! We have a page on "How to contribute" on our website which includes a link to our style guide and naming conventions.

I'm afraid I can't answer specifically about Chebyshev's theorem -- maybe if you post just the type of the main theorem you'd like to add someone more familiar with analytic number theory in mathlib can point you to the right place to look.

Ashton J (Oct 16 2025 at 23:53):

Bryan Gin-ge Chen said:

Welcome! We have a page on "How to contribute" on our website which includes a link to our style guide and naming conventions.

I'm afraid I can't answer specifically about Chebyshev's theorem -- maybe if you post just the type of the main theorem you'd like to add someone more familiar with analytic number theory in mathlib can point you to the right place to look.

Thank you for the advice!

Interestingly enough, Chebyshev's theorem does not actually use analytic number theory, its purely elementary (pre-analytic). It uses combinatorics and binomials, it does not even use calculus.

Aaron Liu (Oct 17 2025 at 00:26):

are you referring to the statement that "if π(n)log(n)/n\pi(n)\log(n)/n converges as nn \to \infty, then it converges to one" there are a lot of chebyshev theorems

Ashton J (Oct 17 2025 at 01:02):

Aaron Liu said:

are you referring to the statement that "if π(n)log(n)/n\pi(n)\log(n)/n converges as nn \to \infty, then it converges to one" there are a lot of chebyshev theorems

I am referring to specifically Chebyshev's Theorem concerning the distribution of prime numbers, so a lower bound for the prime counting function: For sufficiently large n, π(n) ≥ c·n/log(n) for some explicit c > 0.

The theorem you referenced looks closer to the full PNT, while Chebyshev is a strictly weaker bound than the PNT.

Chebyshev:
π(n)<cnlogn\pi(n) < c \frac{n}{\log n}

so a way you can use it:

0.921nlogn<π(n)<1.106nlogn0.921 \frac{n}{\log n} < \pi(n) < 1.106 \frac{n}{\log n}

Prime Number Theorem:

limnπ(n)log(n)n=1\lim_{n \to \infty} \frac{\pi(n) \log(n)}{n} = 1


So Chebyshev is useful in the interim, as a full PNT formalization is... difficult.

Aaron Liu (Oct 17 2025 at 01:57):

oh ok that makes sense


Last updated: Dec 20 2025 at 21:32 UTC