All previous methods of showing the existence of large gaps between primes have relied on the fact that smooth numbers are unusually sparse. This feature of the argument does not seem to generalise to showing large gaps between primes in subsets, such as values of a polynomial. We will talk about recent work which allows us to show large gaps between primes without relying on smooth number estimates. This then generalizes naturally to show long strings of consecutive composite values of a polynomial. This is joint work with Ford, Konyagin, Pomerance and Tao.[-]

The ternary Goldbach conjecture (1742) asserts that every odd number greater than $5$ can be written as the sum of three prime numbers. Following the pioneering work of Hardy and Littlewood, Vinogradov proved (1937) that every odd number larger than a constant $C$ satisfies the conjecture. In the years since then, there has been a succession of results reducing $C$, but only to levels much too high for a verification by computer up to $C$ to be possible $(C>10^{1300})$. (Works by Ramare and Tao have solved the corresponding problems for six and five prime numbers instead of three.) My recent work proves the conjecture. We will go over the main ideas of the proof.
ternary Goldbach conjecture - sums of primes - circle method[-]