For a product of finitely many admissible linear forms, first omit a fixed finite set of locally obstructing primes. Apply the Buchstab identity at a large fixed , and bound each removed term by the Selberg upper-bound sieve. The convergent tail leaves a positive proportion with no prime divisor in . Their distinct prime divisors below are finite in number, while those above number at most , producing infinitely many almost-prime values.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2022 iii Paper 117 1 b Solution 2026-09-28
The weighted sifting function isLet and let the real Selberg sieve weights vanish unless and . Sinceexpansion and the distribution hypothesis giveFor the optimizing Selberg weights, the main quadratic form is , whereThus the general upper bound isIf the sieve level is instead defined as the largest possible least common multiple, one supports the individual weights on ; this is the same statement after replacing by .
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2022 iii Paper 117 1 e Solution 2026-09-28
Take to contain the primes at least ; the exceptional local behavior at and is then harmless. Fix a sufficiently large constant and later choosewith fixed small . The Buchstab identity givesThe first term is for a positive constant , by direct counting in the finitely many permitted residue classes modulo .
For each term in the sum, part c supplies the local factor and remainders bounded by powers of . Apply the Selberg upper-bound sieve to the remaining prime conditions. Mertens theorem gives the dimension-three densityso the main terms in the Buchstab sum are bounded byThis convergent tail can be made smaller than by taking large. The weighted remainder terms are : the estimate controls the summed remainders, while part d controls uniformly the loss caused by the finite sieve level. Choosing sufficiently small relative to , and then taking large, therefore givesfor some absolute .
For every counted , the distinct prime divisors of are either below the fixed or at least . The first class contains at most primes, while makes the second class contain at mostprimes. Since every prime divisor of , , or divides ,after enlarging an absolute constant . A positive proportion occurs for arbitrarily large , so infinitely many such exist. This is the almost-primes from an upper-bound sieve and Buchstab identity method.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2022 iii Paper 117 1 f Solution 2026-09-28
Replace by . The only change is at the locally obstructing primes: every value is divisible by , and every value is divisible by , so omit both primes from . For every , the three roots are distinct and again give and . All Selberg upper-bound sieve, Buchstab identity, and large-prime-factor estimates from part e are unchanged, proving the analogous result.