Möbius formulas for densities of sets of prime ideals (Q2187421): Difference between revisions

Let \(K\) be a number field with ring of integers \(\mathcal{O}_{K}\). For an ideal \(\mathfrak{a} \subseteq \mathcal{O}_{K}\) let \(\mathrm{N}(\mathfrak{a})\) denote its norm. Let \(\mathcal{P}\) denote the set of prime ideals of \(\mathcal{O}_{K}\) and let \(S \subseteq \mathcal{P}\). For \(X \in \mathbb{R}\) define \(\pi_{S}(K ; X) = \# \{ \mathfrak{p} \in S \, : \, \mathrm{N}(\mathfrak{p}) \leq X \}\) and \(\pi(K ; X) = \pi_{\mathcal{P}}(K ; X)\). The \textit{natural density} of \(S\) is defined to be \[ \delta(S) := \lim_{X \rightarrow \infty} \frac{\pi_{S}(K ; X)}{\pi(K ; X)}. \] This density does not necessarily exist for arbitrary sets \(S\). An ideal \(\mathfrak{a} \subseteq \mathcal{O}_{K}\) is said to be \textit{distinguishable} if there exists a unique prime ideal \(\mathfrak{p} \supseteq \mathfrak{a}\) attaining the minimal norm of all such primes. For \(\mathfrak{a}\) distinguishable, let \(\mathfrak{p}_{\mathrm{min}}(\mathfrak{a})\) denote this minimal prime. Define \[ D(K,S) := \{ \mathfrak{a} \subseteq \mathcal{O}_{K} \text{ is distinguishable}:\mathfrak{p}_{\min}(\mathfrak{a}) \in S \}. \] The following is a natural generalisation of the Möbius function to ideals \(\mathfrak{a} \subseteq \mathcal{O}_{K}\): \[ \mu_{K}(\mathfrak{a}):=\left\{\begin{array}{ll}1 & \text{if } \mathfrak{a} = \mathcal{O}_{K},\\ 0 & \text{if } \mathfrak{a} \subseteq \mathfrak{p}^{2} \text{ for some prime } \mathfrak{p},\\ (-1)^{k} & \text{if } \mathfrak{a}=\mathfrak{p}_{1} \cdots \mathfrak{p}_{k} \text{ is a product of distinct primes.} \end{array}\right. \] The main theorem of the article under review is as follows. Fix a number field \(K\) and a subset \(S \subseteq \mathcal{P}\). If \(S\) has natural density \(\delta(S)\) then \[ - \lim_{X \rightarrow \infty} \sum_{\stackrel{2 \leq \mathrm{N}(\mathfrak{a}) \leq X}{\mathfrak{a} \in D(K,S)}} \frac{\mu_{K}(\mathfrak{a})}{\mathrm{N}(\mathfrak{a})} = \delta(S). \] The authors discuss several interesting applications and new examples arising from this result. These include formulas for densities of primes in Sato-Tate intervals for elliptic curves without CM as well as densities of primes in Beatty sequences. For example, if \(\mathcal{B}_{\pi} = \{ 3, 31, \dots \}\) denotes the set of primes of the form \(\lfloor \pi n \rfloor\) for \(n \in \mathbb{N}\) then we have \[ - \sum_{\stackrel{n \geq 2}{p_{\min}(n) \in \mathcal{B}_{\pi}}} \frac{\mu(n)}{n} = \frac{1}{\pi}. \]