We use the Van der Corput sum-integral lemma. Put and . The Fourier series of the periodization of gives
where integer endpoints have half weight. This is the Dirichlet-Jordan convergence theorem for a piecewise smooth, or more generally bounded-variation, periodic function. Here is , so the periodized function has bounded variation. Changing to the requested endpoint convention costs at most one.
Write . For , . Since is continuous and monotone, the reciprocal has bounded variation, and integration by parts in the Riemann-Stieltjes sense yields
The variation of the reciprocal is at most . Summing over gives , separating and using convergence of . For each endpoint, use
The symmetric partial sums of the first term are a constant multiple of , uniformly bounded in and ; this standard Fourier series bound follows by splitting at and applying Abel summation to the remaining sine sum. The second term is absolutely summable with bound . The same bound therefore holds for the whole sum of the integrals. Since is the ordinary integral,
No second derivative is required; monotonicity supplies the needed variation estimate.
For the Hardy-Littlewood approximation to the Riemann zeta function, take . On , and is monotone. The proved lemma says that the difference between the partial sum of and its integral over is uniformly in . Weighted Abel summation with the decreasing weight then makes the weighted difference , since its total variation on is . Initially for , the tail integral is . The bounded primitive of the discrepancy gives a locally uniformly convergent weighted discrepancy integral for every , continuing the identity to that region. Thus, away from the pole,
If the ordinary sum-integral comparison supplies the same estimate. At the formula is understood meromorphically. It approximates the Riemann zeta function by a finite Dirichlet polynomial, transfers exponential sum estimates to bounds in the critical strip, yields elementary near-one bounds for and its derivative, and supports estimates for the mean value of Dirichlet polynomials and numerical calculations.
Absolute convergence and the Fundamental theorem of arithmetic give the Euler product
For a finite set of primes, expand the geometric factors: their product sums over integers whose prime factors lie in that set. Let the finite sets increase through all primes. Absolute convergence permits passage to the limit and recovers the full Dirichlet series. Moreover , so the logarithm converges and the product has no zeros there.
The same absolutely convergent logarithm, and , give
This is the product version of the three-four-one zero-free-region argument. It also proves there are no zeros on : if for , its factor has order at least four as , while the real pole contributes only order minus three and the factor remains bounded. The displayed left side would tend to zero, a contradiction. At there is a pole, not a zero.
For large , put . The Hardy-Littlewood approximation to the Riemann zeta function at gives for ; its finite sum is bounded by and the integral term is bounded. The Cauchy estimate for derivatives on circles of radius comparable to consequently gives for .
Take with a small fixed . The product inequality, , and imply
If , integration of the derivative along the horizontal segment changes this value by at most . Choose sufficiently small that , then sufficiently small. The lower bound remains a positive multiple of . For , the same product inequality, , and the near-one upper bound give that lower bound directly. For , the reciprocal Euler product gives .
Finally the no-zero result on , compactness at bounded heights and the regular reciprocal at the pole allow a further fixed reduction of to include bounded . We have proved the weak logarithmic zero-free region for the Riemann zeta function
The reciprocal at is its holomorphic extension, equal to zero.
Set and . By the Hardy-Littlewood approximation to the Riemann zeta function at , it is enough to bound : the integral term has size because .
On a dyadic interval with , the assumed estimate holds for every initial subinterval. Abel summation with therefore gives
Indeed the weighted endpoint and integral of the term proportional to the subinterval length are , and those of the constant term are . The constants can be uniform in .
For the first term, write and complete the square:
The sum of a shifted Gaussian function on a fixed-spaced lattice is , uniformly in the shift. Thus these dyadic contributions are . This is the Gaussian dyadic summation bound.
For the second term, if its dyadic sum is bounded. If , a crude bound is . The positive exponent obeys , and can be absorbed into uniformly on by increasing the fixed constant . The finitely many initial terms cause no problem. We conclude, with one fixed sufficiently large ,
In particular the endpoint gives under the assumed exponential-sum hypothesis. This conditional conclusion uses that hypothesis, not an unconditional improvement of the stated Richert bound for the Riemann zeta function.
The Möbius function has , vanishes on integers divisible by a square of a prime, and equals on a product of distinct primes. Factoring the divisor sum prime by prime gives
This is the Möbius divisor-sum identity.
For and , the Hardy-Littlewood approximation to the Riemann zeta function at cutoff gives
Indeed , and the omitted integral term has size at most . Multiply by . Its absolute value is at most
where the elementary inequality follows from . Reindexing the finite double sum yields coefficients , with no terms for . For all divisors meet both restrictions, so the Möbius divisor-sum identity gives and for . Hence the truncated Möbius inverse identity for the Riemann zeta function is
The displayed error is uniform in and the stated height interval.
For and , the Hardy-Littlewood approximation to the Riemann zeta function truncates zeta at with error . Multiply the finite sums and use . All coefficients with vanish by the Möbius divisor-sum identity. The total error is bounded using .