Evidence of a Gamma Distribution for Prime Powers

Abstract

If the prime numbers are pseudo-randomly distributed, then analogy with quantum systems suggests that counting primes might be modeled by a non-homogeneous Poisson process. Consequently, postulating underlying gamma statistics, more-or-less standard heuristic arguments borrowed from quantum mechanics in the context of functional integration allows to derive analytic expressions of several average counting functions associated with prime numbers. The expressions are certain sums of incomplete gamma functions that are closely related to logarithmic-type integral functions --- which in turn are well-known to give the asymptotic dependence of the various counting functions up to error terms. The relatively broad success of quantum heuristics applied to functional integrals in general along with the excellent numerical accuracy of the analytic expressions for the average counting functions provide strong evidence of a gamma distribution for prime powers.