Large deviations in the random sieve (Q4351095)

For any positive integer \(k\) let \(\rho_k\) denote the proportion of gaps of length exactly \(k\) between squarefree numbers; i.e., \(\rho_k\) is the density of the set of integers \(n\) such that \(n\) and \(n+k\) are consecutive squarefree numbers. The author shows that, as \(k\to\infty\), \[ \log\rho_k= -\bigl(1+o (1)\bigr) {6\over\pi^2} k\log k. \tag{1} \] He observes that this result, combined with some probabilistic considerations, suggests the conjecture that the \(n\)th gap between squarefree numbers is bounded from above by \[ \leq \bigl(1+o(1) \bigr) {\pi^2\over 12} \cdot {\log n\over \log\log n}, \tag{2} \] as \(n\to\infty\). Remarkably, this conjectural upper bound coincides with a lower bound of Erdős, obtained by a rather different elementary argument (which is reproduced in the paper under review). The author establishes (1) by considering, more generally, sequences \({\mathcal S}= \{s_1,s_2, \dots\}\) of pairwise relatively prime integers satisfying \(\sum_i1/s_i <\infty\). His main result shows that, subject to some mild regularity conditions on \({\mathcal S}\), the distribution of the gaps between integers not divisible by any element from \({\mathcal S}\) has, aside from a multiplicative constant, the asymptotic behavior displayed in (1).