Primes between consecutive powers (Q5902098)

The paper is concerned with the distribution of primes between two consecutive powers of integers, as a natural generalization of the well-known conjecture that all intervals \([n^2, (n + 1)^2]\) contain at least one prime. The famous result of M. N. Huxley about the distribution or primes in short intervals implies that all intervals \([n^{\alpha}, (n + 1)^{\alpha}]\) contain the expected number of primes for \(\alpha > 12/5\) as \(n \to \infty\). Although the author was not able to prove a similar result for \(\alpha = 2\) (even under the assumption of the truth of the Riemann Hypothesis), he was able to obtain some results under the assumption of the Lindelöf Hypothesis, which is that \[ \zeta(\sigma + it) \ll t^{\eta}, \quad \sigma \geq 1/2, \quad t \geq 2, \] for any \(\eta > 0\). Specifically, the first theorem is: Assume the Lindelöf Hypothesis and let \(\alpha > 2\). The intervals \([n^{\alpha}, (n + 1)^{\alpha}]\) contain the expected number of primes for \(n \to \infty\). Next, the author investigates whether ``almost all'' intervals \([n^{\alpha}, (n + 1)^{\alpha}]\) contain the expected number of primes. That is to say, the number of integers \(X \leq n \leq 2X\) for which the interval \([n^{\alpha}, (n + 1)^{\alpha}]\) does not contain the expected number of primes is \(o(X)\). Huxley's zero density estimate, together with the method of A. Selberg shows that almost all intervals \([n^{\alpha}, (n + 1)^{\alpha}]\) contain the expected number of primes for \(\alpha > 6/5\). The author was able to place \(\alpha\) close to 1 assuming the Lindelöf Hypothesis. The second theorem follows: Assume the Lindelöf Hypothesis and let \(\alpha > 1\). Almost all intervals \([n^{\alpha}, (n + 1)^{\alpha}]\) contain the expected number of primes.