Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge / 2022 / iii / Paper 117 / 2 / a / Solution

The Mellin transform of $F$ isBecause the support is a compact subset of $(0,\infty )$, the integral defines an entire function of $s$. The Mellin inversion formula says that, for every real $\sigma$ and every $y>0$,

Apply this with $y=n/X$ and initially $\sigma =2$. Absolute convergence of the Dirichlet series for the logarithmic derivative permits interchange of sum and integral, givingTruncate at height $T=(\log X{)}^A$, where $A$ is a sufficiently large fixed constant. The assumed bound on $\tilde{F}$ makes the discarded tails smaller than the required error. The classical Zero-free region of the Riemann zeta function and the standard bound ${\zeta }^{\prime }(s)/\zeta (s)\ll (\log (|t|+3){)}^{O(1)}$ there allow the truncated contour to move toThe only singularity crossed is the simple pole of $-{\zeta }^{\prime }/\zeta$ at $s=1$, whose residue is $1$. Its contribution isOn the new contour, $|X^s|=X^{1-c/\log \log X}$; the zeta bounds, contour length, and exponential decay of $\tilde{F}$ absorb into a slight decrease of $c$. ThereforeThis is the smoothed prime number theorem from a zero-free region.