Products of primes in arithmetic progressions (Q6203236)

Let \(\mathbb{Z}_q^{\times}\) be the set of reduced residue classes \(\pmod q\). For integers \(k,q\geq 1\) and a real number \(N \geq 1\), let \(E_k(N)\) be the set of integers \(a \in \mathbb{Z}_q^{\times}\) such that \(a \equiv p_1 \dotsm p_k \pmod{q}\) for some primes \(p_1, \dotsc, p_k \leq N\). The main purpose of the paper under study is to approximate the size of \(E_k(N)\) for \(k\in \{2,3\}\). The case \(k=2\) concerns with a conjecture due to Erdős stated in [\textit{P. Erdős} et al., Period. Math. Hungar. 18, 229--239 (1987; Zbl 0625.10035)] asserting that \(E_2(q)=\mathbb{Z}_q^{\times}\) for all large enough primes \(q\). This conjecture is still open, even under assuming generalized Riemann hypothesis. In this paper the authors establish a ternary variant of Erdős' conjecture by showing that if \(q \in \mathbb{N}\) is cube-free and sufficiently large, then \(E_3(q) = \mathbb{Z}_q^{\times}\). Moreover, letting \(\varepsilon>0\) and \(q \in \mathbb{N}\) be sufficiently large in terms of \(\varepsilon\), they prove that \(E_3(q^{1+\varepsilon}) = \mathbb{Z}_q^{\times}\). In another direction to consider Erdős' conjecture, the authors consider the problem of lower-bounding the density of \(E_2(q)\) inside \(\mathbb{Z}_q^{\times}\), and prove that letting \(\varepsilon>0\) and \(q \in \mathbb{N}\) be sufficiently large in terms of \(\varepsilon\), then one has \(|E_2(q)| \geq (2/3-\varepsilon) \varphi(q)\), and further, assuming \(q\) is cube-free, then \(|E_2(q)| \geq (11/16-\varepsilon) \varphi(q)\).