Cancellation occurs when different complex numbers in an exponential sum have directions that reduce the absolute value of their sum. For example, the orthogonality of roots of unity makes for every integer , despite all terms having absolute value one.
Character sum of a Dirichlet character Created 2026-10-06 Updated 2026-10-07
A character sum of a Dirichlet character is a finite sum such as or the weighted sum . Orthogonality of Dirichlet characters converts residue class restrictions to these sums.
Exponential sum 2026-10-06
A finite sum of complex exponentials, such as with , is an exponential sum. Cancellation in an exponential sum between its terms can make it much smaller than the sum of their absolute values.
Let . Regroup the finite divisor sum using the least common multiple:
This is nonnegative. If has no prime factor in , only can contribute to the inner sum, so it equals . This proves the required pointwise upper-bound sieve inequality. Whenever a term defining is nonzero, and their prime factors lie in . Hence , and every prime factor of lies in . Thus these are upper-bound sieve weights of level , as described by the Selberg least-common-multiple weights.
Set , and restrict attention to the set of squarefree integers all of whose prime factors lie in . Coefficients indexed by non-squarefree integers do not affect , so they may be set to zero. Put
In particular, the normalizing sum runs to , as in the PDF; the converted TeX's is a transcription error. Define . The finite multiples version of Möbius inversion is
It follows by substituting the definition and using . Taking gives . Thus the Selberg sieve diagonalization and the Cauchy-Schwarz inequality give
Equality holds at , which satisfies the constraint. Inverting, and writing , yields
For set . The formula has and gives minimum .
To show these optimal Selberg weights have modulus at most one, fix . Each integer , with , and , is a distinct term of . The total weight of these terms is
It is at most , so the displayed formula gives . This proves the modulus bound without assuming that each factor is itself small.
Write , where is the prime omega function. If , its contribution to the Dirichlet convolution is
Since , summing over the prime factors proves the log-weighted convolution bound for three to the prime omega, . On , , hence
This is the required inequality. The standard Chebyshev estimate bounds its right side by . To bound the latter sum, use multiplicativity and extend to all numbers with prime factors at most :
The Mertens second theorem states . Taking logarithms of the product, with a summable remainder, gives . Therefore the product is , proving the summatory bound for three to the prime omega in the required range:
Put , with the offset logarithmic integral function. The permitted standard sieve estimate can be taken as the Brun–Titchmarsh theorem:
For , . Also . Thus both terms defining are , uniformly over the permitted moduli. Apply the Cauchy-Schwarz inequality in the form
This is the weighted arithmetic-progression error bound. The prime omega function and Euler totient function weights can therefore be handled using an unweighted mean error and a separate positive sum.
Finite rearrangement and the Von Mangoldt divisor identity give
For , integral comparison of the increasing logarithm gives . Moving to real changes the main term by . Thus the integrated Chebyshev sum has
For , choose
These are logarithmic Möbius function weights; they need not be upper-bound sieve weights. For , the Möbius inversion identities and give
Hence the expression suggested in the question is
We will use the elementary Möbius harmonic logarithmic moments, , for which
Here is a proof of the needed estimates. From , replacing floors by gives . Also , because . Substituting the permitted harmonic number estimate gives , so .
For , the weighted Dirichlet hyperbola method gives the harmonic divisor sum expansion
Explicitly, for , . Substitute the harmonic estimate and , obtained by unit-interval integral comparison. This proves the expansion without a prime-distribution theorem. Since , we have , and therefore
The summed error is bounded by , by integral comparison. Thus .
Finally substitute the asymptotic for into . The main term is
The error sum is : partition the integers into ; each interval contributes , and the resulting series converges. Using the moment estimates proves the Selberg symmetry formula:
In particular, the factor two comes from the quadratic logarithmic moment, rather than from an assumption of the Prime number theorem.
Let the Bravais lattice have primitive vectors , and put
The reciprocal lattice has the basis
The scalar triple product and cross product identities give
Consequently every satisfies for every lattice point , and conversely these three conditions force the coefficients of in the reciprocal basis to be integers. This proves that the displayed vectors generate .
In the Born approximation, suppose that the crystal potential is the sum of translates of one atomic potential over the finite set of lattice sites. Its Fourier transform at the momentum transfer factors as
Thus the single-atom scattering amplitude is multiplied by the crystal lattice structure factor . Writing
separates the sum into three finite geometric series. For this gives
When the are large, a factor has a sharp maximum when . All three factors are therefore simultaneously large precisely when . These are the reciprocal-lattice peaks of a finite crystal.
For the stated Body-centered cubic lattice basis,
the reciprocal-basis formula gives
Equivalently,
The shortest nonzero reciprocal vectors have squared Euclidean norm , so
In elastic scattering, . If and is the angle between and , Euclidean geometry gives
The first possible diffraction peak therefore occurs at
as , by the small-angle approximation. This is the elastic Bragg scattering condition for the shortest reciprocal-lattice vector.
For an ideal gas of identical bosons, the Bose-Einstein distribution gives the mean occupation of a discrete one-particle state as
where is the chemical potential. If the spectrum is sufficiently dense to use a density of states , the discrete sum becomes