An effective Bombieri-Vinogradov error term for sifting problems

Fuente: arXiv
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Autore principale: Johnston, Daniel R.
Natura: Preprint
Pubblicazione: 2025
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author Johnston, Daniel R.
author_facet Johnston, Daniel R.
contents In number theory, many major results related to the additive properties of primes are proven using the methods of sieve theory. However, in nearly every case, the existing proofs of these results are ineffective, in that explicit values for which they hold cannot be computed. The reason for this ineffectivity is due to the reliance on the Bombieri--Vinogradov theorem. In this paper, we show that any classical sifting problem with a Bombieri--Vinogradov style error term can in fact be made effective, with no loss to the asymptotic form of the original (ineffective) result. This is done by carefully modifying the sieve upper and lower bounds as to avoid the usual complications regarding the existence of a Siegel zero. We also provide some simple applications. For example, we show that one may effectively bound the number of primes $p\leq x$ such that $p+2$ is also prime by \begin{equation*}(4+o(1))C_2\frac{x}{(\log x)^2},\end{equation*}where\begin{equation*}C_2=2\prod_{p>2}\left(1-\frac{1}{(p-1)^2}\right).\end{equation*}
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2510_10853
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle An effective Bombieri-Vinogradov error term for sifting problems
Johnston, Daniel R.
Number Theory
11N35 (Primary) 11M20, 11N36 (Secondary)
In number theory, many major results related to the additive properties of primes are proven using the methods of sieve theory. However, in nearly every case, the existing proofs of these results are ineffective, in that explicit values for which they hold cannot be computed. The reason for this ineffectivity is due to the reliance on the Bombieri--Vinogradov theorem. In this paper, we show that any classical sifting problem with a Bombieri--Vinogradov style error term can in fact be made effective, with no loss to the asymptotic form of the original (ineffective) result. This is done by carefully modifying the sieve upper and lower bounds as to avoid the usual complications regarding the existence of a Siegel zero. We also provide some simple applications. For example, we show that one may effectively bound the number of primes $p\leq x$ such that $p+2$ is also prime by \begin{equation*}(4+o(1))C_2\frac{x}{(\log x)^2},\end{equation*}where\begin{equation*}C_2=2\prod_{p>2}\left(1-\frac{1}{(p-1)^2}\right).\end{equation*}
title An effective Bombieri-Vinogradov error term for sifting problems
topic Number Theory
11N35 (Primary) 11M20, 11N36 (Secondary)
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2510.10853