OFFSET
2,1
COMMENTS
The function f(x) = x/((log x) log log x) has a minimum of ~ 5.2 at x ~ 9.39 and is increasing for larger x. The growth of this function is related to the growth of prime numbers. As a result, the function f is a relatively fast growing function with the property that the map p -> nextprime(f^-1(p)) = A181943(p) seems to have p -> floor(f(p)) = A181942(p), or p->floor(f(p)/2)*2+1, as left inverse "almost everywhere"(?) on the primes. (The function x/(log x)^2 also has this property, but is not growing as fast.)
This is the "decoding function" of A181922: Repeated application to the n-th element of that sequence successively yields the n preceding smaller primes, at least for n<= 1000.
PROG
(PARI) A181942(n)=n\(log(n)*log(log(n)))
CROSSREFS
KEYWORD
sign
AUTHOR
M. F. Hasler, Apr 03 2012
STATUS
approved