Simple Wave-Optical Superpositions as Prime Number Sieves.

Autor: Petersen TC; School of Physics and Astronomy, Monash University, Victoria 3800, Australia., Ceko M; School of Physics and Astronomy, Monash University, Victoria 3800, Australia., Svalbe ID; School of Physics and Astronomy, Monash University, Victoria 3800, Australia., Morgan MJ; School of Physics and Astronomy, Monash University, Victoria 3800, Australia., Bishop AI; School of Physics and Astronomy, Monash University, Victoria 3800, Australia., Paganin DM; School of Physics and Astronomy, Monash University, Victoria 3800, Australia.
Jazyk: angličtina
Zdroj: Physical review letters [Phys Rev Lett] 2019 Mar 08; Vol. 122 (9), pp. 090201.
DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.122.090201
Abstrakt: We encode the sequence of prime numbers into simple superpositions of identical waves, mimicking the archetypal prime number sieve of Eratosthenes. The primes are identified as zeros accompanied by phase singularities in a physically generated wave field for integer valued momenta. Similarly, primes are encoded in the diffraction pattern from a simple single aperture and in the harmonics of a single vibrating resonator. Further, diffraction physics connections to number theory reveal how to encode all Gaussian primes, twin primes, and how to construct wave fields with amplitudes equal to the divisor function at integer spatial frequencies. Remarkably, all of these basic diffraction phenomena reveal that the naturally irregular sequence of primes can arise from trivially ordered wave superpositions.
Databáze: MEDLINE