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.
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.
For each prime number , the congruence removes exactly one residue class of modulo ; for , it removes none. The dimension-one upper-bound sieve therefore gives
Separating the primes that divide bounds the product by
The ratio form of Mertens theorem says that the first product is . Hence