Some Diophantine equations and inequalities with primes (Q2238288)

Let \(c>1\) be real but not integral, and let a positive integer \(s\) be given. This paper asks whether there is an \(\eta=\eta(c,s)>0\) such that one can solve the Diophantine inequality \[ |p_1^c+\ldots+p_s^c-R|<R^{-\eta} \] in prime variables \(p_i\), for all large enough \(R\). In certain cases the paper proves a lower bound of the expected order of magnitude for the number of solutions, namely for \(c<6/5\) when \(s=3\), for \(c<39/29\) when \(s=4\), and when \(c<378/181\) for \(s=5\). In the case \(s=2\) one covers ``almost all'' \(R\) for \(c<39/29\), \(c\not=4/3\). The paper also examines \[ [p_1^c]+\ldots[p_2^c]=N \] and again proves a lower bound for the number of solution for \(c<3581/3106\) when \(s=3\), and for \(c<609/293\) when \(s=5\). These results are improvements on a large number of earlier works by various authors: [\textit{S. Li} and \textit{Y. Cai}, Ramanujan J. 52, No. 1, 163--174 (2020; Zbl 1444.11051); \textit{Y. Cai}; Int. J. Number Theory 14, No. 8, 2257--2268 (2018; Zbl 1422.11209); \textit{M. Zhang} and \textit{J. Li}; Int. J. Number Theory 15, No. 9, 1759--1770 (2019; Zbl 1448.11129); \textit{Y. Zhao} et al., ``On two Diophantine inequalities over primes (II)'', Preprint, \url{arXiv: 1810.09368}; \textit{S. Li}, Int. J. Number Theory 15, No. 8, 1601--1616 (2019; Zbl 1462.11084)]. The proofs combine sieve ideas with the Davenport-Heilbronn version of the circle method. The improvement over previous works stems from incorporating a device of Cai [loc. cit.] and using good bounds for exponential sums due to \textit{M. N. Huxley} [Proc. Lond. Math. Soc. (3) 90, No. 1, 1--41 (2005; Zbl 1083.11052)], \textit{J. Bourgain} [J. Am. Math. Soc. 30, No. 1, 205--224 (2017; Zbl 1352.11065)], and the reviewer [Proc. Steklov Inst. Math. 296, 88--103 (2017; Zbl 1461.11110); translation from Tr. Mat. Inst. Steklova 296, 95--110 (2017)].