On ternary Egyptian fractions with prime denominator (Q2336057)

An \textit{Egyptian fraction representation} of a given rational number \(a/n\) is a solution in positive integers of the Diophantine equation \[ \frac{a}{n}=\frac{1}{m_1}+\frac{1}{m_2}+ \cdots+ \frac{1}{m_k}. \] In the case \(k=2\), it called a \textit{binary Egyptian fraction representation}, for \(k=3\) it is called a \textit{ternary Egyptian fraction representation}. In the paper under review, the main object of study of the authors is the following function: \[ A_k(n)=\# \left\{ a\in \mathbb{N}: \frac{a}{n}=\frac{1}{m_1}+\frac{1}{m_2}+ \cdots+ \frac{1}{m_k}, \quad m_1, m_2, \ldots, m_k \in \mathbb{N}\right\}. \] For \(k=2\), it was shown by \textit{E. S. Croot} et al. [J. Number Theory 84, No. 1, 63--79 (2000; Zbl 0961.11015)] that \(A_2(n) \ll n^{o(1)}\) as \(n\to \infty\) and that \[ x\log^{3}x \ll \sum_{n\le x}A_2(n) \ll x\log^{3}x. \] For \(k=3\), it was also shown by Croot et al.[loc. cit.] that \(A_3(n) \ll n^{1/2+ o(1)}\) as \(n\to \infty\). It should be noted that some of their results were improved by \textit{C. Elsholtz} and \textit{T. Tao} [J. Aust. Math. Soc. 94, No. 1, 50--105 (2013; Zbl 1304.11018)]. In this paper, for \(k=3\) they study the same problem but with prime denominators. Their main result is the following. Theorem 1. For \(k=3\) and \(n=p\), we have \[ x(\log x)^{3} \ll \sum_{p\le x}A_3(p) \ll x(\log x)^{5} \quad \text{as} \quad x \to \infty. \] The proof of Theorem 1 follows from a clever combination of techniques in analytic number theory and the related results on the subject in the literature.