On Bombieri and Davenport's theorem concerning small gaps between primes (Q4024702)

This paper contains a new proof of the following theorem of Bombieri and Davenport. Theorem: If \(H<(\log N)^ A\), for some fixed \(A\), then for any fixed \(\varepsilon>0\) and \(N\) sufficiently large we have \[ \sum_{k=1}^ H t(k)Z(N;k)>N \sum_{k=1}^ H t(k){\mathfrak S}(k)- \left( {1\over4}+\varepsilon\right) t(0)N\log N. \] Here the \(t(k)\) are real, \(t(-k)=t(k)\), and \(T(\alpha)=\sum_{k=-H}^ H t(k)e(k\alpha)\geq 0\). The function \({\mathfrak S}(k)\) is defined for all integers \(k\neq 0\) by \[ {\mathfrak S}(k)=\begin{cases} 0, & \text{ if \(k\) is odd};\\ 2C\displaystyle{\prod_{{p\mid k} \atop {p>2}}}\left( {{p-1} \over {p- 2}}\right), & \text{ if \(k\) is even},\;k\neq 0; \end{cases} \] and \(C=\prod_{p>2}(1-1/(p-1)^ 2)\). The new proof uses an approximation to \(\Lambda(n)\) given by \(\Lambda_ Q(n)=\displaystyle{\sum_{{d\mid n} \atop {d\leq Q}}} \mu(d)\log(Q/d)\). For \(Q\geq n\), \(\Lambda_ Q(n)=\Lambda(n)\), and therefore we take \(Q\) smaller than this. It is shown that \[ \sum_{n\leq N} \Lambda(n)\Lambda_ Q(n)=N\log Q+O(N), \qquad \sum_{n\leq N} \Lambda_ Q^ 2(n)=N\log Q+O(N), \] where the second result is a special case of a result of S. Graham. Further, \[ \sum_{n\leq N} \Lambda_ Q(n)\Lambda(n+k)={\mathfrak S}(k)N+R_ Q(N,k), \qquad \sum_{n\leq N} \Lambda_ Q(n)\Lambda_ Q(n+k)={\mathfrak S}(k)N+R_ Q^*(N,k), \] where the Bombieri-Vinogradov theorem implies \(R_ Q(N,k)=o(N)\) for \(Q\leq N^{1/2-\varepsilon}\), and \(R_ Q^*(N,k)=o(N)\) for \(Q\leq N^{1/2- \varepsilon}\). These last results show that \(\Lambda_ Q\) satisfies a sort of twin prime conjecture, and this remains true if one of the \(\Lambda_ Q\) is replaced by \(\Lambda\). The theorem is obtained by using these results together with a Bessel inequality argument.