Notes on Chebyshev's method (Q1071051): Difference between revisions

The author reviews a method of Chebyshev as developed more recently by \textit{C. Hooley} [Acta Math. 117, 281-299 (1967; Zbl 0146.057)] which can sometimes be used to show that one of the members \(u_ n\leq x\) of a suitable sequence has a prime factor exceeding \(x^ c\) for some reasonably positive constant c. He remarks that the case when the sequence is an arithmetic progression, to a modulus \(x^{\alpha}\), say, has not been treated in the literature; this gap is to be filled in his paper with \textit{A. Balog} and \textit{J. Pintz} [Stud. Sci. Math. Hung. (to appear)]. He also considers the complementary problem where one seeks \(u_ n\) having no large prime factors. For example one may ask that an interval \([X-X^{\alpha}, X]\) should contain a positive proportion of integers all of whose prime factors are \(\leq X^ F\), as \(X\to \infty\). Let f(\(\alpha)\) be the inf of these F. He announces that for some c \[ f(\alpha)<1-\alpha -c\alpha^ 3(1-\alpha), \] to be proved in a forthcoming paper with J. C. Lagarias.