A Short-Window Closed Formula for the n-th Prime Number: A Refinement of the Ruiz--Sondow Formula with 0.787 n/ln^2 n Terms

Let p(n) be the n-th prime number (OEIS A000040) and pi(x) the prime counting function. The classical closed-form formula of Ruiz and Sondow quoted in A000040 requires the summation of approximately 2*n*ln(n) terms, while the formulas of Willans and of Gandhi, Golomb and Wang require exponentially many terms. We prove that for every pair of integer-valued functions A(n) <= p(n) <= B(n) with A >= 1 and B = 8,009,824, the resulting refined formula requires at most 0.787*n / ln^2(n) + 1 terms, which narrows the summation range of the Ruiz-Sondow formula by a factor of ~2.54*ln^3(n). This constitutes a reduction of 3,500 times for n=10^6 and 23,000 times for n=10^9. The underlying analytical bounds were validated numerically for all n <= 13,161,544, and the formula was cross-verified against independent computations up to n = 10^10. Evaluated exactly via a localized window sieve, it computes p(10^9) in 0.30 s and p(10^10) in 4.2 s in Python.

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Publication Details

Journal
Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research)
Published
2026-10-26
DOI
https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.23662113
Primary Topic
Analytic Number Theory Research
Type
preprint
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preprint

A Short-Window Closed Formula for the n-th Prime Number: A Refinement of the Ruiz--Sondow Formula with 0.787 n/ln^2 n Terms

Mark Kim
Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research)
Analytic Number Theory Research
preprint

A Short-Window Closed Formula for the n-th Prime Number: A Refinement of the Ruiz--Sondow Formula with 0.787 n/ln^2 n Terms

Mark Kim
preprint en

Abstract

Let p(n) be the n-th prime number (OEIS A000040) and pi(x) the prime counting function. The classical closed-form formula of Ruiz and Sondow quoted in A000040 requires the summation of approximately 2*n*ln(n) terms, while the formulas of Willans and of Gandhi, Golomb and Wang require exponentially many terms. We prove that for every pair of integer-valued functions A(n) <= p(n) <= B(n) with A >= 1 and B = 8,009,824, the resulting refined formula requires at most 0.787*n / ln^2(n) + 1 terms, which narrows the summation range of the Ruiz-Sondow formula by a factor of ~2.54*ln^3(n). This constitutes a reduction of 3,500 times for n=10^6 and 23,000 times for n=10^9. The underlying analytical bounds were validated numerically for all n <= 13,161,544, and the formula was cross-verified against independent computations up to n = 10^10. Evaluated exactly via a localized window sieve, it computes p(10^9) in 0.30 s and p(10^10) in 4.2 s in Python.

Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research)
Analytic Number Theory Research
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A Short-Window Closed Formula for the n-th Prime Number: A Refinement of the Ruiz--Sondow Formula with 0.787 n/ln^2 n Terms — Mark Kim · Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research) (2026) | TGRS Research Map | TGRS