Distributional properties of the largest prime factor (Q2491070): Difference between revisions

Let \(P(n)\) denote the largest prime factor of an integer \(n>1\), and \(P(1)=1\), also let \(\text{ e}(z) = \exp(2\pi iz)\). The authors consider the function \(\rho(x;q,a) = \sum_{n\leq x,P(n)\equiv a \bmod q}1\). In the case of \(q\) fixed, this question has been considered previously by the reviewer [Acta Arith. 71, 229--251 (1995; Zbl 0820.11052)]. The authors state that they use an approach similar to the reviewer's and obtain new bounds that are non-trivial in a wide range of the parameter \(q\). In particular, if \(q\) is not too large relative to \(x\), they derive the expected asymptotic formula \[ \rho(x;q,a) \;\sim\; {x\over \varphi(q)}\qquad(x\to\infty) \] with an explicit error term that is independent of \(a\) (\(\varphi\) denotes Euler's function). This is precisely formulated in Theorem 1. On the other hand, it is shown that this estimate is no longer correct (even by an order of magnitude) for \(q\geq \exp(3\sqrt{\log x\log\log x}\,)\). They also study the function \(\bar{\omega}(x;q,a) = \sum_{p\leq x,P(p-1)\equiv a \bmod q}1\), where as usual \(p\) denotes primes. It is shown that \[ \bar{\omega}(x;q,a) \;\ll\; {\pi(x)\over\varphi(q)} \qquad\left(1\leq q \leq \log^{1/3}x,\; \pi(x) = \sum_{p\leq x}1\right), \] and one expects that \(\bar{\omega}(x;q,a) \sim {\pi(x)\over\varphi(q)}\) holds in a suitable range for \(q\). In the last section a bound for \(\sum_{n\leq x}\text{ e}(\alpha P(n))\) is derived for a fixed irrational number \(\alpha\). The bound is nontrivial whenever \(x\) is sufficiently large (depending only on \(\alpha\)), from which it is deduced that the sequence \(\{\alpha P(n)\;:\;n\geq 1\}\) is uniformly distributed modulo 1. The proofs rely on nine lemmas, some of which are of independent interest.