Is there a reason we're obsessed with primes beyond aesthetics? Why does this set of numbers garner all the headlines as opposed to some other arbitrary integer sequence like the Recamán numbers [0] ? If tomorrow someone discovered a closed-form equation for the nth prime, how would mathematics/the world change? [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Recamán%27s_sequence
The prime numbers are critical in cryptography. Almost all of our current digital security infrastructure is based on the concept of multiplying large numbers together modulo suitably big prime numbers. Any major step towards understanding them (such as a closed-form equation for primes) would have major mathematical knock-on effects which may or may not undermine these methods, or provide us with a basis for even st…
That's not true of elliptic curves.