Major-arc value of the prime exponential sum 2026-10-14
For and , apply the Siegel–Walfisz theorem to every reduced residue class with error exponent . The main terms sum to , where the Ramanujan sum satisfies for coprime . Nonunits with nonzero Von Mangoldt function are powers of primes dividing and contribute at most , which is absorbed by the error. For arbitrary , the correct main term is ; the reduced numerator hypothesis cannot be omitted.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2001 iii Paper 76 2 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
Vinogradov's three-primes theorem states that every sufficiently large odd positive integer is a sum of three primes, with repetitions allowed. The parity restriction is a genuine local obstruction to the main asymptotic, not merely a technical convenience.
Let be large and define the prime-weighted exponential sumwhere is the Von Mangoldt function. Character orthogonality gives the Hardy-Littlewood circle method identityThe task is to extract a positive main term from rational neighborhoods and make the remaining integral smaller.
Take , with a fixed sufficiently large , and use major arcs around reduced fractions with . They are disjoint once is large relative to . The minor arcs are their complement. On a major arc put . The Siegel–Walfisz theorem, followed by partial summation in each residue class, givesuniformly on these arcs after choosing the underlying logarithmic error exponent sufficiently large. The reduced residue-class sum is the Ramanujan sum when . Prime powers dividing and the partial-summation factor are absorbed in the stated error choice.
Cubing and integrating produces the singular series and singular integral:The last identity is Fourier inversion for the volume of the simplex , ; the upper bounds do not restrict its interior. The tails and approximation errors are . Since on squarefree , multiplicativity givesFor even the factor at vanishes. For odd it is , andThe lower bound is uniform in odd . The product converges because the sums of the local deviations converge. It describes how congruence restrictions alter the otherwise random prime-summand density.
For the minor arcs, a Type I/II prime-sum estimate provides the necessary cancellation. One useful form, obtainable from Vaughan's identity and bilinear estimates, iswhen . Dirichlet's approximation theorem supplies a denominator with . On the minor arcs its denominator must exceed , so both denominator-dependent terms are at most . Choosing large gives . The mechanism is to split into short-divisor Type I sums and bilinear Type II sums; geometric-sum bounds treat Type I, while Cauchy-Schwarz exposes correlations and rational spacing in Type II. The displayed estimate is the substantive analytic input, rather than a consequence of bounding each summand separately.
Meanwhile Parseval identity and the elementary prime-weight second moment giveThereforeCombining the two regions yields . Proper prime powers account for only : there are such choices for one coordinate, at most choices for another, and each weight is at most . Hence they cannot account for the positive main term. The weighted count using primes alone is positive for every sufficiently large odd , proving the asserted representation. The conclusion is the sufficiently-large three-prime theorem; no verification of every small odd integer is supplied by this argument.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2005 iii Paper 28 7 i Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
The Von Mangoldt function is supported on prime powers:Write . A convenient form of the Siegel–Walfisz theorem is: for every fixed , uniformly for and ,The implied constant can be ineffective because of possible Siegel zeros; the modulus bound is logarithmic, not an unrestricted uniformity assertion.
Apply this to modulus five and separate the reduced residue classes:The last sum is : only powers of five can contribute in the zero residue class. By the orthogonality of roots of unity,since two is coprime to five and the sum including vanishes. As , the Siegel–Walfisz theorem yieldsThe sum is complex-valued, but the displayed error controls its absolute difference from the real main term.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2006 iii Paper 28 5 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
Fix integers and with . We prove the Dirichlet theorem on primes in arithmetic progressions by showing that the prime Dirichlet sum in this residue class diverges as its real exponent decreases to one.
First justify the required Dirichlet L-function facts. If is a nonprincipal Dirichlet character modulo , its sum over a full period is zero: choose a unit with , and multiplication by permutes the residue classes, forcing the sum to equal times itself. Therefore the partial sums are bounded by . Partial summation giveswhich supplies holomorphic continuation near one, with locally uniform convergence. For the principal Dirichlet character ,has a simple pole at one, with residue .
The assumption in the question gives nonvanishing at one for real nonprincipal characters. We must also prove it for nonreal characters. For a nonreal , its square is nonprincipal. For real , logarithms of the Euler products giveFor a prime not dividing , its logarithmic coefficient is , where . Primes dividing contribute only the positive zeta term. If vanished to order , the product would be and tend to zero: the squared-character factor is bounded because is nonprincipal. This is a contradiction. HenceThis step uses the given real-character hypothesis and the Euler product positivity for L-function nonvanishing for all remaining characters.
In choose the logarithm furnished by the absolutely convergent Euler product. Its prime-power expansion givesThe error from powers is uniformly bounded as , by . For nonprincipal , nonvanishing and holomorphic continuation at one provide a bounded logarithm in a neighborhood of one. The Euler-product branch differs from that branch by a constant integral multiple of on the final real interval, so it too is bounded. ThusFor the principal character, its simple pole instead gives
The Orthogonality of Dirichlet characters gives, for primes not dividing ,Multiply by and sum. Absolute convergence allows the interchange for , soThe right side tends to infinity. If there were only finitely many primes in the progression, the left side would have a finite limit at one. This contradiction proves infinitely many primes occur in every reduced residue class. For or the character argument simply has no nonprincipal terms and gives the same conclusion.
For the final deduction the modulus is fixed. Let . The given consequence of the Siegel–Walfisz theorem is . Partial summation, including the prime through the lower endpoint when appropriate, givesThe boundary is . Write with . The main integral is . The error is : given , choose such that for . Its integral from to is a fixed constant, and its absolute value from to is at most plus a fixed constant. Divide by and then let . We obtain the reciprocal primes in a fixed arithmetic progression asymptoticThe argument uses the supplied prime-counting asymptotic in this last part; the preceding infinitude proof did not assume the Prime number theorem in arithmetic progressions.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2010 iii Paper 25 5 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
The rational approximation below is taken in lowest terms, , with , and . This is necessary for denominator-sensitive exponential sum estimates and for the final Ramanujan sum to equal . If , the defining sum over is empty and ; hence we may assume .
Set , so , and write the given Vaughan identity term as the Type II sumUse a dyadic decomposition into , , retaining . Empty blocks may be discarded; every remaining block has , , and there are blocks. Denote a block by . The Cauchy-Schwarz inequality givesBy the allowed divisor-square summatory bound, the first factor is . Expand the second factor. The diagonal contributes , using . For a pair , the allowed form the intervalThus the exponential geometric sum bound applies to this interval even though the original block has a hyperbolic cutoff. For each difference , there are ordered pairs, giving an upper boundfor the expanded second factor, with an absolute constant accommodating integer endpoints. The supplied reciprocal fractional-part sum near a rational, with and , bounds the last sum byOne may also derive this directly from the separated reciprocal-distance sum by splitting into blocks of length at most ; the approximation error between two block points is at most , and the rational rotations are separated by .
Combining the estimates yieldsSince and , both . Taking square roots provesSumming the dyadic blocks establishes the rational-phase Type II estimate and, in particular, the requested bound with an explicit logarithmic power:
The Siegel–Walfisz theorem states that for fixed , uniformly for and ,The constant is allowed to be ineffective. Apply this with to the reduced residue classes. Their contribution to the prime exponential sum issince there are at most residue classes. To evaluate the Ramanujan sum, the Möbius divisor-sum identity gives . Then the finite geometric series givesWhen , only remains, giving . The omitted nonunits contribute only prime powers with . For each such prime, the sum of their Von Mangoldt function weights is at most , so their total is at most , absorbed by the stated error. This proves the major-arc value of the prime exponential sum:The original PDF does not state coprimality in this last request. Without it the asserted main term is genuinely false: makes and hence , whereas . For an arbitrary numerator the correct main term is , with given by the divisor formula above. Reducing the fraction before applying the boxed result is the equivalent repair.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2015 iii Paper 27 4 a Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-06
Let and , the identity for Dirichlet convolution. The elementary identities needed areFor the first, prime factorization gives when , and one when . For the second, if , then , the Von Mangoldt divisor identity. Convolving the second identity with proves the third.
For , let the subscripts , , , denote truncations. The Vaughan identity isIts pointwise form isTo prove it, use and . This givesand rearrangement proves the formula, as in the Vaughan identity proof.
The Bombieri–Vinogradov theorem states that for every there is such thatHere is the Chebyshev function in an arithmetic progression, and is the Euler totient function. In particular, partial summation givesafter choosing the logarithmic saving in the weighted theorem sufficiently large and absorbing the prime power terms. This is the offset logarithmic integral function.
For the proof strategy, Orthogonality of Dirichlet characters converts errors in arithmetic progressions into character sums of Dirichlet characters weighted by . Reduction to primitive Dirichlet characters is followed by the character large sieve, which bounds their mean square by with the usual weights. The Vaughan identity separates the weighted sums into short terms, Type I sums and Type II sums. Direct inner-sum estimates handle the Type I sums; the Cauchy-Schwarz inequality and the large sieve control the Type II sums. The Siegel–Walfisz theorem supplies arbitrarily strong logarithmic savings for small moduli, where an average estimate alone would not suffice. A dyadic decomposition, suitable and a sufficiently large absorb the divisor and logarithmic losses. This explains why the range is essentially , with logarithmic room to spare.
Vinogradov's three-primes theorem Created 2026-10-14 Updated 2026-11-05
Every sufficiently large odd integer is a sum of three primes, with repetitions allowed. The weighted count is asymptotic to . Siegel–Walfisz theorem controls the major arcs, and Type I/II estimates for the prime exponential sum make the minor arcs negligible. Removing prime-power contributions gives genuine prime representations. This is the sufficiently-large theorem, not by itself a proof for every small odd integer.