Translated sums of primitive sets (Q2131743): Difference between revisions

The aim of this paper is to shed further light on the Erdős primitive set conjecture, which states that the primes maximize the quantity \(f(A) := \sum_{a \in A} \frac{1}{a \log a}\) among all primitive sets \(A\). Primitive sets are subsets of \(\mathbb{N}\) for which no member of \(A\) divides another. Here one investigates the relation of the primes \(\mathbb{N}_1\) with respect to the \(k\)-almost primes \(\mathbb{N}_k\) concerning the slightly altered statistic \(f(A,h) := \sum_{a \in A} \frac{1}{a (h + \log a)}\). It is shown that for \(h > h_2 \approx 1.04\) onwards, \(f(\mathbb{N}_1,h) < f(\mathbb{N}_2,h)\) and that \(f(\mathbb{N}_1,h_2) < f(\mathbb{N}_k,h_2)\) for all \(k > 2\). One also shows that for \(h > h_\infty \approx 0.27\) there are sufficiently large \(k\) for which \(f(\mathbb{N}_1,h) < f(\mathbb{N}_k,h)\). Moreover the numbers \(h_2\) and \(h_\infty\) are sharp with respect to the above claims.