On local frequencies related to Farey fractions (Q1592024)

For a set \(P\) of primes let \(\omega (n,P)\) denote the number of factors of \(n\) from \(P\). Given two sets \(P_1\), \(P_2\) of primes, a function is defined on rational numbers by \(h(m/n) =\omega (m,P_1)+\omega (n,P_2)\) for coprime \(m,n\). The author finds an estimate for \[ N(x,h,s) = \# \{(m,n): h(m/n)=s, 0<m\leq n\leq x, (m,n)=1\}. \] Write \[ E_i = \sum _{p\leq x, p\in P_i} 1/(p-1) \] and \(E=E_1+E_2\). Assume that \(E\rightarrow \infty \) and \(E_1/E_2\) stays between positive bounds. Then we have approximately a Poisson distribution with parameter \(E\). This is analogous to a theorem of \textit{G. Halász} [Studia Sci. Math. Hung. 6 (1971), 211-233 (1972; Zbl 0226.10046)] for additive functions on integers. However, there is an extra factor \(\Delta = 1+ \exp \{(1-\alpha)(E-s)\}\) in the error term, and due to this the theorem as stated yields a proper asymptotic only in the range \(s=E+ O( \log E)\).