Primender Sequence: A Novel Mathematical Construct for Testing Symbolic Inference and AI Reasoning

원문 초록

This paper introduces the Primender sequence, a novel integer sequence defined by a hybrid rule that combines classical primality with modular digit-based conditions. Specifically, a number n is included in the sequence if it is prime or ends with a prime number of unit digit or any length. In other words, numbers which are primes or have at least one prime suffix. The resulting sequence exhibits a deterministic yet non-trivial structure, blending number-theoretic properties with symbolic patterning. We propose the Primender sequence as a benchmark for evaluating the symbolic reasoning capabilities of Large Language Models (LLMs). The study is motivated by the need for interpretable, rule-based testbeds that can assess an LLM's ability to infer hidden rules, validate mathematical hypotheses, and generalize symbolic logic at scale. A key hypothesis explored is: Whenever a number in the Primender sequence is exactly one more than the largest prime less than or equal to it, the difference between it and the previous number in the sequence is also 1. We design a structured prompt and evaluation framework to test this hypothesis across multiple state-of-the-art LLMs, including ChatGPT, Copilot, DeepSeek, Gemini, Grok, and LLaMA. The models are tasked with identifying the underlying rule, validating the hypothesis, and generating the next 100,000 terms of the sequence. Comparative metrics such as rule inference accuracy, hypothesis evaluation, sequence validity, and symbolic explanation quality are used to assess model performance. This work contributes a novel mathematical construct and a reproducible methodology for benchmarking LLMs in symbolic reasoning, hypothesis testing, and scalable pattern generalization - bridging the domains of number theory, artificial intelligence, and software engineering.