Prime Obsession: Bernhard Riemann and the Greatest Unsolved Problem in Mathematics

by John Derbyshire

This table is just a sample of the function, a snapshot, with arguments I have chosen for a very deliberate purpose.

What about the contrary situation? Suppose I find myself looking at a function whose rule is: when the arguments go up by multiplication, the values go up by addition? What kind of function is that? Here we have entered the realm of inverse

The non-trivial zeros of Riemann's zeta function arise from inquiries into the distribution of prime numbers. The eigenvalues of a random Hermitian matrix arise from inquiries into the behavior of systems of subatomic particles under the laws of quantum mechanics. What on earth does the distribution of prime numbers have to do with the behavior of subatomic particles? 19 TURNING THE GOLDEN KEY I.