State-of-the-Art Statistical Science to Tackle Famous Number Theory Conjectures

The methodology described here has broad applications, leading to new statistical tests, new type of ANOVA (analysis of variance), improved design of experiments, interesting fractional factorial designs, a better understanding of irrational numbers leading to cryptography, gaming and Fintech applications, and high quality random number generators (and when you really need them). It also features exact arithmetic / high performance computing and distributed algorithms to compute millions of binary digits for an infinite family of real numbers, including detection of auto- and cross-correlations (or lack of) in the digit distributions. The data processed in my experiment, consisting of raw irrational numbers (described by a new class of elementary recurrences) led to the discovery of unexpected apparent patterns in their digit distribution: in particular, the fact that a few of these numbers, contrarily to popular belief, do not have 50% of their binary digits equal to 1. It turned out that perfectly random digits simulated in large numbers, with a good enough pseudo-random generator, also exhibit the same strange behavior, pointing to the fact that pure randomness may not be as random as we imagine it is. Ironically, failure to exhibit these patterns would be an indicator that there really is a departure from pure randomness in the digits in question. In addition to new statistical / mathematical methods and discoveries and interesting applications, you will learn in my article how to avoid this type of statistical traps that lead to erroneous conclusions, when performing a large number of statistical tests, and how to not be misled by false appearances. I call them statistical hallucinations and false outliers. This article has two main sections: section 1, with deep research in number theory, and section 2, with deep research in statistics, with applications. You may skip one of the two sections depending on your interests and how much time you have. Both sections, despite state-of-the-art in their respective fields, are written in simple English. It is my wish that with this article, I can get data scientists to be interested in math, and the other way around: the topics in both cases have been chosen to be exciting and modern.