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Let $m,n,d$ all be positive integers with $m+n>2.$

Proposition: There exist prime numbers, $p_1,p_2,\ldots,p_m;\ \ q_1, q_2,\ldots,q_n,$ all distinct, such that $\displaystyle\prod_{i=1}^{m} p_i = \prod_{i=1}^{n} q_i + d. $

Other than obvious observations such as, if $d$ is odd then one of the prime factors must be $2,$ I do not have any great idea for how to approach such a problem. I haven't checked properly, but I doubt the prime number theorem will be useful.

Adam Rubinson
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This is an incomplete answer, relating your question to Dickson's conjecture which is presently unproven. It does suggest that your claim holds when $m,n>1$, and I'm sure that with some effort or a clever argument this can be turned into a proof. Unfortunately I'm in a hurry.


Let $m$, $n$ and $d$ be given. Without loss of generality I'll assume that $p_i<p_j$ and $q_i<q_j$ whenever $i<j$.

Pick arbitrary distinct primes $p_1,\ldots,p_{m-1}$ and $q_1,\ldots,q_{n-1}$ that are coprime to $d$, and set $$P:=\prod_{i=1}^{m-1}p_i\qquad\text{ and }\qquad Q:=\prod_{i=1}^{n-1}q_i.$$ Then we want to solve $$Pp_m-Qq_n=d,$$ where $p_m$ and $q_n$ are primes with $p_m>p_{m-1}$ and $q_n>q_{n-1}$. Because $P$ and $Q$ are coprime there exist positive integers $x$ and $y$ such that $$Px-Qy=d,$$ and then of course $(x+kQ,y+kP)$ is another solution for any integer $k$. Because $P$ and $Q$ are coprime to $d$, also $x$ is coprime to $Q$ and $y$ is coprime to $P$. By Dirichlet's theorem the two arithmetic sequences $x+kQ$ and $y+kP$ both contain infinitely many primes. Furthermore the asymptotic densities of primes in these sequences are $\varphi(Q)^{-1}$ and $\varphi(P)^{-1}$, respectively, where $\varphi$ denotes the totient function.

Heuristically one would expect that the integers $k$ for which $x+kP$ is prime are 'independent' of the integers $k'$ for which $y+k'Q$ is prime, and hence that there are in fact infinitely many integers $k$ for which $x+kP$ and $y+kQ$ are both prime. This is also the gist of Dickson's conjecture, which is still unproven.

When $m,n>1$ we are still free to choose $P$ and $Q$, to some extent, giving a lot of room to pin down a solution.

Servaes
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