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Are there two or more primes, $p_1, p_2, \ldots$ such that the union of their multiples occurs with frequency $1/n$, where $n$ is an integer? If so, can that n be prime?

I put it into a computer and pairs of primes seem to get arbitrarily close (looked at primes < 10000), but I didn't see any.

(Please don't hurt me, I know I'm bad at math.)

Blue
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    What exactly do you mean by "occurs with frequency $1/n$"? Is this some kind of asymptotic frequency? Or do you mean that the numbers lie precisely in an arithmetic sequence (i.e. you can generate the next one by adding $n$ to the previous one)? – Theo Bendit Aug 22 '19 at 06:22
  • If you asking whether products of a finite number of primes can occur with a finite asymptotic density the answer is no. The asymptotic density of any such subset is $0$, the asymptotic density even of the subset of all primes is $0$. – Conifold Aug 22 '19 at 06:34
  • Sorry. What I meant by the density is what Greg Martin said in his answer. – Justin Tang Aug 22 '19 at 07:01

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I am interpreting your question to be asking about the (asymptotic) natural density of the set $$ \{ p_1, 2p_1, 3p_1, \dots \} \cup \{ p_2, 2p_2, 3p_2, \dots \} \cup \cdots \cup \{ p_k, 2p_k, 3p_k, \dots \}, $$ where $p_1<\cdots<p_k$ are distinct primes.

This union is a periodic set with period $p_1\cdots p_k$, and so its natural density is equal to its number of elemnets up to $p_1\cdots p_k$ divided by $p_1\cdots p_k$.

It's not hard to show by induction on $k$, using the fact that $p_1,\dots,p_j$ each divide $n$ if and only if $p_1\cdots p_k$ divides $n$, that the complement of this set has natural density $$ \prod_{j=1}^k \bigg( 1-\frac1{p_j} \bigg); $$ thus the density of your set is $1$ minus this quantity. In particular, this density is a fraction whose denominator is divisible by the largest prime $p_k$.

Therefore we can answer "no" to your second question: if this density is to be the the reciprocal of a prime, then it has to equal $1/p_k$. But note that the equation $$ 1 - \prod_{j=1}^k \bigg( 1-\frac1{p_j} \bigg) = \frac1{p_k} $$ is algebraically equivalent to $$ \prod_{j=1}^{k-1} \bigg( 1-\frac1{p_j} \bigg) = 1; $$ since each factor is less than $1$, this is impossible when $k\ge2$.

Greg Martin
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