Estermann's ternary problem with almost equal summands. (Q1889570)

An asymptotic formula for the number of representations of a large integer \(N\) as the sum of two primes and a square was proved by \textit{T. Estermann} [Proc. Lond. Math. Soc. (2) 42, 501--516 (1937; Zbl 0016.94602 and JFM 63.0131.02)]. The author considers this problem with the additional restriction that three summands (two primes and a square) are almost equal to \(N/3\). Now let \(I(N,H)\) denote the number of representations of \(N\) in the form \(N=p_1+p_2+m^2\) with primes \(p_1\), \(p_2\) and a natural number \(m\) satisfying \(| p_i-N/3| \leq H\) for \(i=1\), 2, and \(| m^2-N/3| \leq H\). Then, in this paper, the following theorem is established by the circle method. Provided that \(N\) is sufficiently large and \(N^{3/4}L^3\leq H<N/3\), on writing \(L=\log N\), one has \[ I(N,H)=\frac{3H^2}{2\sqrt{N/3}L^2}\prod_{p>2} \biggl(1+\biggl(\frac Np\biggr)\frac1{(p-1)^2}\biggr)+O\biggl(\frac{H^2}{\sqrt{N}L^3}\biggr), \] where \(p\) stands for primes, and \((\frac Np)\) denotes the Legendre symbol.