The principle of the large sieve

arXivmath/0610021MaRDI QIDQ6477958FDOQ6477958

Publication date: 30 September 2006

Abstract: We describe a very general abstract form of sieve based on a large sieve inequality which generalizes both the classical sieve inequality of Montgomery (and its higher-dimensional variants), and our recent sieve for Frobenius over function fields. The general framework suggests new applications. We get some first results on the number of prime divisors of ``most elements of an elliptic divisibility sequence, and we develop in some detail ``probabilistic sieves for random walks on arithmetic groups, e.g., estimating the probability of finding a reducible characteristic polynomial at some step of a random walk on SL(n,Z). In addition to the sieve principle, the applications depend on bounds for a large sieve constant. To prove such bounds involves a variety of deep results, including Property (T) or expanding properties of Cayley graphs, and the Riemann Hypothesis over finite fields. It seems likely that this sieve can have further applications.

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Sums of independent random variables; random walks (60G50) Unitary representations of locally compact groups (22D10) Recurrences (11B37) Finite ground fields in algebraic geometry (14G15) Applications of sieve methods (11N36) Representations of finite groups of Lie type (20C33) Sieves (11N35) Polynomials and matrices (11C99)

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