Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2022 iii Paper 117 2 a Solution 2026-09-28
The Mellin transform of isBecause the support is a compact subset of , the integral defines an entire function of . The Mellin inversion formula says that, for every real and every ,
Apply this with and initially . Absolute convergence of the Dirichlet series for the logarithmic derivative permits interchange of sum and integral, givingTruncate at height , where is a sufficiently large fixed constant. The assumed bound on makes the discarded tails smaller than the required error. The classical Zero-free region of the Riemann zeta function and the standard bound there allow the truncated contour to move toThe only singularity crossed is the simple pole of at , whose residue is . Its contribution isOn the new contour, ; the zeta bounds, contour length, and exponential decay of absorb into a slight decrease of . ThereforeThis is the smoothed prime number theorem from a zero-free region.