Smooth Values of Shifted Primes in Arithmetic Progressions

Similar documents
Average value of the Euler function on binary palindromes

Carmichael numbers with a totient of the form a 2 + nb 2

On the Fractional Parts of a n /n

On Carmichael numbers in arithmetic progressions

Character sums with Beatty sequences on Burgess-type intervals

On a combinatorial method for counting smooth numbers in sets of integers

Prime Divisors of Palindromes

On Values Taken by the Largest Prime Factor of Shifted Primes

ON CARMICHAEL NUMBERS IN ARITHMETIC PROGRESSIONS

Possible Group Structures of Elliptic Curves over Finite Fields

Integers without large prime factors in short intervals: Conditional results

AVERAGE RECIPROCALS OF THE ORDER OF a MODULO n

arxiv:math/ v3 [math.nt] 23 Apr 2004

Congruences and exponential sums with the sum of aliquot divisors function

Short Kloosterman Sums for Polynomials over Finite Fields

Euler s ϕ function. Carl Pomerance Dartmouth College

HOW OFTEN IS EULER S TOTIENT A PERFECT POWER? 1. Introduction

Prime divisors in Beatty sequences

On Gauss sums and the evaluation of Stechkin s constant

E-SYMMETRIC NUMBERS (PUBLISHED: COLLOQ. MATH., 103(2005), NO. 1, )

Multiplicative Order of Gauss Periods

On the elliptic curve analogue of the sum-product problem

On the number of elements with maximal order in the multiplicative group modulo n

Another Generalization of Wiener s Attack on RSA

A 1935 Erdős paper on prime numbers and Euler s function

On pseudosquares and pseudopowers

Carmichael numbers and the sieve

Primality Testing. 1 Introduction. 2 Brief Chronology of Primality Testing. CS265/CME309, Fall Instructor: Gregory Valiant

Almost All Palindromes Are Composite

On pseudosquares and pseudopowers

Number Theoretic Designs for Directed Regular Graphs of Small Diameter

On the Average Value of Divisor Sums in Arithmetic Progressions

ITERATES OF THE SUM OF THE UNITARY DIVISORS OF AN INTEGER

Flat primes and thin primes

A Local-Global Principle for Diophantine Equations

Exponential and character sums with Mersenne numbers

Integers without large prime factors in short intervals and arithmetic progressions

1 i<j k (g ih j g j h i ) 0.

Irreducible radical extensions and Euler-function chains

On the largest prime factors of consecutive integers

Density of non-residues in Burgess-type intervals and applications

Part II. Number Theory. Year

Small exponent point groups on elliptic curves

All variables a, b, n, etc are integers unless otherwise stated. Each part of a problem is worth 5 points.

Piatetski-Shapiro primes from almost primes

The ranges of some familiar arithmetic functions

Houston Journal of Mathematics c 2050 University of Houston Volume 76, No. 1, Communicated by George Washington

On primitive sets of squarefree integers

An integer p is prime if p > 1 and p has exactly two positive divisors, 1 and p.

Fixed Points and Two-Cycles of the Discrete Logarithm

NOTES Edited by William Adkins. On Goldbach s Conjecture for Integer Polynomials

Fermat s Little Theorem. Fermat s little theorem is a statement about primes that nearly characterizes them.

On the Security of Diffie Hellman Bits

Arithmetic properties of the Ramanujan function

NONABELIAN GROUPS WITH PERFECT ORDER SUBSETS

Congruences and Exponential Sums with the Euler Function

NON-LINEAR COMPLEXITY OF THE NAOR REINGOLD PSEUDO-RANDOM FUNCTION

A Guide to Arithmetic

Applied Cryptography and Computer Security CSE 664 Spring 2018

CHAPTER 6. Prime Numbers. Definition and Fundamental Results

Products of ratios of consecutive integers

SMOOTH NUMBERS AND THE QUADRATIC SIEVE. Carl Pomerance

LECTURE 5: APPLICATIONS TO CRYPTOGRAPHY AND COMPUTATIONS

The ranges of some familiar functions

The ranges of some familiar arithmetic functions

A Remark on Sieving in Biased Coin Convolutions

A New Attack on RSA with Two or Three Decryption Exponents

Integer factorization, part 1: the Q sieve. D. J. Bernstein

Order and chaos. Carl Pomerance, Dartmouth College Hanover, New Hampshire, USA

Basic elements of number theory

Basic elements of number theory

Some Arithmetic Functions Involving Exponential Divisors

INTEGERS DIVISIBLE BY THE SUM OF THEIR PRIME FACTORS

Squares in products with terms in an arithmetic progression

Security Level of Cryptography Integer Factoring Problem (Factoring N = p 2 q) December Summary 2

Order and chaos. Carl Pomerance, Dartmouth College Hanover, New Hampshire, USA

Almost Primes of the Form p c

ON THE RESIDUE CLASSES OF π(n) MODULO t

A SURVEY OF PRIMALITY TESTS

Equidivisible consecutive integers

Repeated Values of Euler s Function. a talk by Paul Kinlaw on joint work with Jonathan Bayless

#A61 INTEGERS 14 (2014) SHORT EFFECTIVE INTERVALS CONTAINING PRIMES

Definition 6.1 (p.277) A positive integer n is prime when n > 1 and the only positive divisors are 1 and n. Alternatively

#A69 INTEGERS 13 (2013) OPTIMAL PRIMITIVE SETS WITH RESTRICTED PRIMES

Bounds for the first several prime character nonresidues

arxiv: v1 [math.nt] 22 Jun 2017

Departmento de Matemáticas, Universidad de Oviedo, Oviedo, Spain

ON VALUES TAKEN BY THE LARGEST PRIME FACTOR OF SHIFTED PRIMES

GAPS IN BINARY EXPANSIONS OF SOME ARITHMETIC FUNCTIONS, AND THE IRRATIONALITY OF THE EULER CONSTANT

DIVISOR-SUM FIBERS PAUL POLLACK, CARL POMERANCE, AND LOLA THOMPSON

Factorization & Primality Testing

arxiv: v1 [math.nt] 9 Jan 2019

Character sums with exponential functions over smooth numbers

CPSC 467b: Cryptography and Computer Security

arxiv: v1 [math.nt] 24 Mar 2009

A combinatorial problem related to Mahler s measure

Evidence that the Diffie-Hellman Problem is as Hard as Computing Discrete Logs

Smol Results on the Möbius Function

Amicable numbers. CRM Workshop on New approaches in probabilistic and multiplicative number theory December 8 12, 2014

Theoretical Cryptography, Lecture 13

Transcription:

Smooth Values of Shifted Primes in Arithmetic Progressions William D. Banks Department of Mathematics, University of Missouri Columbia, MO 65211 USA bbanks@math.missouri.edu Asma Harcharras Department of Mathematics, University of Missouri Columbia, MO 65211 USA harchars@math.missouri.edu Igor E. Shparlinski Department of Computing, Macuarie University Sydney, NSW 2109, Australia igor@ics.m.edu.au Abstract We study the problem of bounding the number of primes p x in an arithmetic progression for which the largest prime factor of p h does not exceed y. 1 Introduction Recall that an integer n 1 is said to be y-smooth if it is not divisible by any prime p exceeding y. Smooth numbers have played an important role in many Corresponding author 1

number theoretic and cryptographic investigations, and there is an extensive body of literature on the subject, originating with the work of Dickman [5] and de Bruijn [3]. For an interesting account of smooth numbers, we refer the reader to the survey article by Granville [11]; see also the references contained therein. As usual, we denote by Ψx, y) the counting function for smooth numbers: Ψx, y) = #{n : 1 n x and n is y-smooth}. It is well-known that the asymptotic relation Ψx, y) ρu) x holds in a very wide range within the xy-plane, where u = log x)/) and ρu) is the Dickman-de Bruijn function which is defined by and ρu) = 1 ρu) = 1, 0 u 1, u 1 ρv 1) dv, u > 1. v For an account of the basic analytic properties of ρu), we refer the reader to the book by Tenenbaum [19]. In this paper, we are interested in finding upper bounds for the number of primes p x that lie in a fixed arithmetic progression and such that p h is y-smooth, where h 0 is a fixed integer. To describe our results, let us introduce some notation that is used throughout the seuel. As usual, we denote by πx) the prime counting function: πx) = #{prime p x}. Next, following [17], we define πx, y) = #{prime p x : p 1 is y-smooth}. More generally, for any integer h 0, let π h x, y) = #{prime p x : p h is y-smooth}. Finally, for any integers, a with 1 and gcda, ) = 1, we put π h x, y;, a) = #{prime p x : p h is y-smooth and p a mod )}. 2

Since one might expect that the set {p 1 : prime p x} contains roughly the same proportion of y-smooth integers as the set of all positive integers n x, it is reasonable to conjecture following Erdős [6]; see also [16]) that the relation πx, y) ρu) πx) holds for all x and y in a fairly wide range. More generally, for fixed h 0 one might also conjecture see, for example, [14]) that the relation π h x, y) ρu) πx) also holds in a wide range. Indeed, for all primes p > h the uantity p h is relatively prime to h, thus it is reasonable to expect that the set {p h : prime p x} contains roughly the same proportion of y-smooth integers as the set of all positive integers n x coprime to h, and for a fixed value of h the latter proportion is easily seen to be ρu) using a standard sieve to detect coprimality. Finally, arguing that the set of primes p x such that p h is y-smooth is likely to be evenly distributed over all admissible arithmetic progressions modulo that is, those that represent infinitely many primes), it may be true that the relation π h x, y;, a) ρu) πx) 1) ϕ) holds in a wide range. At the present time, however, all of these conjectures appear to be out of reach. Over the years, substantial progress has been made on the problem of finding upper and lower bounds for πx, y); see [1, 2, 4, 6, 11, 14, 15, 16]. In particular, highly nontrivial upper bounds for πx, y) have been found by Fouvry and others in the case where y > x 1/2, while for smaller values of y, the bound πx, y) = O u ρu) πx)) has been recently obtained by Pomerance and Shparlinski [17] in the range ) exp log x log log x y x. 2) In the shorter range exp log x) 2/3+ε) y x, 3) 3

the slightly stronger estimate πx, y) ρu)πx) follows from Theorem 4 of Fouvry and Tenenbaum [8]. In this paper, we show how the methods of [17] combined with results of Granville [10] see also [9]) and Fouvry and Tenenbaum [7] on smooth integers in arithmetic progressions can be used to prove that the estimate ) u ρu) ch) π h x, y;, a) = O πx) 4) ϕ) holds uniformly with respect to each of the involved parameters) for all x, y and in a wide range, where ch) = p 1 p 2. p h p 2 Moreover, we obtain an explicit value though somewhat modest) for the implied constant in 4). For a precise statement of this result, see Theorem 2 below. We remark that the conjecture 1) suggests that our upper bound 4) is probably not tight as it contains the extra factors u and ch); it remains an interesting open uestion as to whether these factors can be removed from 4). Our result immediately implies that rather sparse arithmetic progressions contain a positive proportion of primes for which p 1 has a large prime divisor; see the discussion in Section 5. Our result also has an interesting cryptographic conseuence. It is well known that primes p for which p 1 is smooth are not suitable for most cryptographic applications derived from Diffie-Hellman or RSA schemes. The results of [17] show that in fact such primes are very rare. However, primes p such that p 1 is not smooth are occasionally chosen to satisfy some additional conditions; for example, for the applications described in [20], what is needed is a good supply of non-smooth primes lying in a certain arithmetic progression. The results of this paper imply, in a uantitative form, that almost all primes p in any arithmetic progression with a modulus of moderate size are such that p 1 is not smooth. Throughout the paper, the implied constants in symbols O, and may occasionally depend, where obvious, on the small parameter ε > 0 but 4

are absolute otherwise. We recall that the expressions A B and B A are each euivalent to the statement that A = OB). Throughout, the letters p and l always denote prime numbers, while n and always denote positive integers. Acknowledgements. We wish to extend a special note of thanks to Glyn Harman, whose detailed comments on the manuscript helped to improve the exposition and the uality of our results. We also thank Roger Baker and Carl Pomerance for several enlightening discussions. The first two authors would like to thank Macuarie University for its hospitality during the preparation of this paper. Work supported in part, for the first author, by NSF grant DMS-0070628, and for the third author, by ARC grant DP0211459. 2 Preliminaries Here we collect some preliminary estimates to be used in the seuel. For any integer n 2, let P + n) denote the largest prime divisor of n, and put P + 1) = 1. As in Section 1, we define Ψx, y) = #{n x : P + n) y}. Throughout the seuel, the parameter u is defined, as usual, to be the ratio u = log x)/) whenever x and y are given. The following result of Hildebrand [13] concerns the asymptotic nature of the function Ψx, y); see also Corollary 9.3 in Chapter III.5 of [19]. Lemma 1. For every ε > 0, the estimate )) logu + 1) Ψx, y) = ρu) x 1 + O holds uniformly provided that exp log log x) 5/3+ε) y x. For any integers and a with gcda, ) = 1, let Ψx, y;, a) = #{n x : P + n) y and n a mod )}, and put Ψ x, y) = #{n x : P + n) y and gcdn, ) = 1}. 5

We need the following result of Granville [10] about smooth numbers lying in a fixed arithmetic progression. Lemma 2. For any ε > 0, the estimate Ψx, y;, a) = 1 ϕ) Ψ x, y) 1 + O log u c + 1 )) holds uniformly provided that gcda, ) = 1 and 1+ε y x, for some constant c > 0 that depends only on ε. Here, as usual, ϕ denotes the Euler function. We also need the following result of Fouvry and Tenenbaum [7] about smooth numbers relatively prime to a fixed modulus. Lemma 3. For any ε > 0, the estimate Ψ x, y) = ϕ) )) log logy) log log x Ψx, y) 1 + O holds uniformly provided that x x 0 ε), exp log log x) 5/3+ε) y x, and log log + 2) ) 1 ε. logu + 1) We also need the following two lemmas concerning the Dickman-de Bruijn ρ-function. Lemma 4. For any u 0 and 0 δ u with δ logu+1) 0, the following estimate holds: ρu δ) = ρu) 1 + O δ logu + 1))). Proof. In Lemma 1 of [13], we find the estimate ρ u) ρu) logu log2 u), u e 4. In particular, ρ u) ρu) logu + 1), u 0. 5) 6

If 0 δ u, then for some v in the interval [u δ, u], we have that is, ρu δ) ρu) = δ ρ v) δρv) logv + 1) δρu δ) logu + 1); ρu) = ρu δ) 1 + Oδ logu + 1))). Taking into account that δ logu+1) 0, we obtain the desired estimate. Lemma 5. For all u 1, we have u 1 ρt) dt u + 1 + 1/u)ρu). Proof. Using the well known identity see, for example, Lemma 1 of [13]) ρu) = 1 u u u 1 ρt) dt, u 1, it follows that ρu) ρu 1)/u; by induction, we obtain the estimate ρu + j) Thus, for all u 1, we have ρt) dt = u + j) u 1 j=0 This completes the proof. ρu) u + j)u + j 1)...u + 1), j 1. u+j u+j 1 uρu) + ρu) + ρu) ρt) dt = j=2 u + j)ρu + j) j=0 1 = u + 1 + 1/u)ρu). u + 1) j 1 Finally, we recall the following result from sieve theory; see Theorem 3.12 from [12]. Lemma 6. Let m, h, and b be integers such that mh 0, gcdm, h) = 1, 2 mh, gcd, b) = 1, and 1 log Y ) A, where A > 0 is a fixed constant. Then, as Y, the number of primes l Y such that l b mod ) and ml + h is prime is at most 8 ) 1 )) p 1 Y log log Y 1 p 1) 2 p 2 ϕ) log 2 1 + O A, Y log Y p>2 2<p mh uniformly in the parameters m, h, and b. 7

3 An Asymptotic Formula Our principal tool is the following theorem, which is an extension of Lemma 1 from [17] and which we believe to be of independent interest. While for the purposes of this paper we reuire only an upper bound for the sum considered below, we remark that Theorem 1 in fact provides an asymptotic formula in certain wide ranges of the involved parameters. Theorem 1. Let ε > 0 be fixed. For any real numbers x and y satisfying exp log log x) 5/3+ε) y x, any integer 1 y 1 ε, and any integer a with gcda, ) = 1, we have where m x, P + m) y m a mod ) m ϕm) = ζ 2)ζ 3) ρu) x 1 + O E x, y))), ζ 6) E x, y) = log log log log x + + y log x log log x logu + 1), x and ζ s) is the partial zeta-function defined for Rs) > 1 by ζ s) = p 1 p s ) 1. Proof. For any integer d with gcdd, ) = 1, denote by d the uniue integer such that 1 d and dd 1 mod ). Then m x, P + m) y m a mod ) m ϕm) = = = m x, P + m) y m a mod ) d x, P + d) y gcdd,)=1 d x, P + d) y gcdd,)=1 8 d m µd) 2 ϕd) µd) 2 ϕd) m x/d, P + m) y m ad mod ) 1 µd) 2 ϕd) Ψx/d, y;, ad ).

For the moment, suppose that d x/y. Since 1+ε y x/d, Lemma 2 provides the uniform estimate Ψx/d, y;, ad ) = Ψ x/d, y) log 1 + O ϕ) u c d + 1 )) for some constant c > 0 depending only on ε, where u d = logx/d))/). If 2, then since u d 1, we have Ψx/d, y;, ad ) = Ψ )) x/d, y) log 1 + O. 6) ϕ) Clearly, this estimate also holds when = 1. Next, we want to apply Lemma 3 to estimate Ψ x/d, y). To do this, we need to check that the necessary conditions on x/d and y are met. First, observe that exp log logx/d)) 5/3+ε) exp log log x) 5/3+ε) y x/d. Also, x/d y x 0 ε) if x is sufficiently large. Finally, if x and y are large enough, then u d + 1 = logx/d) log x + 1 + 1 log x, log log x) 5/3+ε logu d + 1) log log x ) log 1/5/3+ε) y)2/5, and therefore ) 1 ε log log + 2) log logy 1 ε + 2) ) 21 ε)/5. logu d + 1) Applying Lemma 3, we obtain the uniform estimate Ψ x/d, y) = ϕ) )) log logy) log logx/d) Ψx/d, y) 1 + O. Because we therefore see that Ψ x/d, y) = ϕ) log logy) log 2 ε = Olog ), Ψx/d, y) 1 + O 9 log log log x )). 7)

Combining the estimates 6) and 7), we now derive that Ψx/d, y;, ad ) = 1 + O Ψx/d, y) log log log log x + )) 8) provided that d x/y. For any d > x/y, we also have Ψx/d, y;, ad ) = n x/d n ad mod ) 1 = x + O1). 9) d Now put z = min{, x/y}. Using 8) and 9), it follows that m x, P + m) y m a mod ) m ϕm) = = Σ 1 + Σ 2 ) d x, P + d) y gcdd,)=1 1 + O µd) 2 ϕd) Ψx/d, y;, ad ) log log log log x + )) + OΣ 3 + Σ 4 ), where Σ 1 = Σ 2 = Σ 3 = Σ 4 = d z, P + d) y gcdd,)=1 µd) 2 ϕd) z<d x/y, P + d) y gcdd,)=1 x/y<d x, P + d) y gcdd,)=1 x/y<d x, P + d) y gcdd,)=1 Ψx/d, y), µd) 2 ϕd) µd) 2 ϕd) µd) 2 ϕd). Ψx/d, y), x d, 10

First, let us estimate Σ 1. For all d z, we have by Lemma 1: Ψx/d, y) = ρu d ) x )) logud + 1) 1 + O d ) )) log x log d x log log x = ρ 1 + O. d Also, by Lemma 4, we have ) log x log d ρ since if δ = log d)/), then = ρu) 1 + O log log log x )), 0 δ logu + 1) log log log x, and the last term tends to 0 as x when x and y lie in the specified range. Thus, we derive that Σ 1 = ρu) x )) log log log x µd) 2 1 + O dϕd). d z, P + d) y gcdd,)=1 Finally, by the well known ineuality for the Euler function d z, P + d) y gcdd,)=1 ϕd) d, d 3, 10) log log d see, for example, Theorem 5.1 from Chapter 1 of [18]), we have µd) 2 µd) 2 = dϕd) dϕd) + O log log d d 2 d 1 gcdd,)=1 = ζ 2)ζ 3) ζ 6) d> log log + O ). ) Noting that 1 < ζ 2)ζ 3) ζ 6) < 2, 1, 11) 11

it now follows that Σ 1 = ζ 2)ζ 3) ζ 6) ρu) x 1 + O log log log x )). To estimate Σ 2, we may assume that z = < x/y, since Σ 2 = 0 otherwise. Under this assumption, put j 0 = log z = log and j 1 = logx/y) = log x. Then, using Lemma 1 again, we derive that and therefore Σ 2 = 1 1 x Σ 2 x <d x/y, P + d) y gcdd,)=1 <d x/y j 0 j j 1 ρ µd) 2 ϕd) Ψx/d, y) µd) 2 log x log d ϕd) ρ u j + 1 ) ) x d µd)2 dϕd), e j <d ej+1 log j ρ u j + 1 ). 12) e j j 0 j j 1 Here we have used 10) and the fact that ρu) is a decreasing function of u. Next, we observe that the function ft) = logt 1) e t 1) ρ u t ) satisfies the estimate ft + 1) ft) = 1 e 1 + O )) log log x 13) for all t in the range t log x 1. Indeed, by Lemma 4, we have for all t log x 1: ρ u t + 1 ) = ρ u t ) )) log log x 1 + O, 12

since if δ = 1/, then 0 δ log u t ) + 1 log log x 0. The estimate 13) follows immediately. This shows that ft) is a function of exponential decay provided that x is sufficiently large; hence from 12) we now derive that Σ 2 x j 0 e j 0 ρ u j ) 0 + 1. Since j 0 = log + O1), we have ) j 0 e j 0 log = O, while another application of Lemma 4 gives ρ u j ) )) 0 + 1 log log log x = ρu) 1 + O. Using 11), it follows that Σ 2 ρu) x log 1 + O )) log log log x Σ 1 log. Finally, we turn to the estimates for Σ 3 and Σ 4. Put j 2 = log x. Using 10), we derive that Σ 3 = x x x/y<d x, P + d) y gcdd,)=1 j 1 j j 2 e j <d e j+1 P + d) y µd) 2 dϕd) x log log d d 2 x/y<d x P + d) y x log log d d 2 log j e 2j j 1 j j 2 Ψe j+1, y). By Lemma 1, Ψe j+1, y) = e j+1 ρ ) j + 1 1 + O log log x )), 13

and therefore Σ 3 x log j ρ e j j 1 j j 2 ) j + 1 x log j 1 ρ e j 1 ) j1 + 1 y log log x ρu 1). Since ρ u) = ρu 1)/u for all u 1, the estimate 5) implies Conseuently, Σ 3 y log log x For Σ 4, we have the estimate Σ 4 = By Lemma 1, Σ 4 x/y<d x, P + d) y gcdd,)=1 log log x x ρu 1) u logu + 1) ρu), u 1. y log x log log x logu + 1) u logu + 1) ρu) Σ 1. x µd) 2 ϕd) ρu) x 1 + O x/y<d x P + d) y log log d d )) logu + 1) log log x x Ψx, y). log log x Σ 1. x Combining our estimates for Σ j, 1 j 4, and using the fact that < y, the result follows. Corollary 1. Let ε > 0 be fixed. For any real numbers x and y satisfying exp log log x) 5/3+ε) y x, any integer with log = o), and any integer a with gcda, ) = 1, we have m ϕm) ζ 2)ζ 3) ρu) x. ζ 6) m x, P + m) y m a mod ) Proof. Examining the structure of the error term in Theorem 1, it follows that E x, y) = o1) provided that exp log log x) 5/3+ε) y 14 x log log x) 1+ε

and log = o), and we obtain the reuired asymptotic formula. For larger values of y, one can argue directly as follows: m ϕm) = m ϕm) + m ϕm). m x, P + m) y m a mod ) m x m a mod ) For the first summation, it is easy to check that m x m a mod ) m x, P + m)>y m a mod ) m ϕm) = ζ 2)ζ 3) ρu) x ζ 6) while for the second summation, we have m ϕm) r log log x gcdr,)=1 x ϕ) log x 1 + O y<p x p ar mod ) r log log x m x, P + m)>y m a mod ) log log log x r ϕr) pr ϕpr) log x )), x log log + 2) log log x log log log log x log x ) ρu) x = o. Here we have used the Brun-Titchmarsh theorem for the second ineuality; see Theorem 2.2 of [12]. This completes the proof. 4 Main Results As in Section 1, let us define for all n 1, cn) = l 1 l 2. l n l 2 Then we have the following trivial estimate: cn) l n l 2 l l 1 l>2 l 1) 2 ll 2) = 15 n C 2 gcdn, 2) ϕn), 14)

where C 2 is the twin primes constant given by C 2 = ) 1 1 = 0.6601618158.... p 1) 2 p>2 Theorem 2. Let ε > 0 and A > 0 be fixed. Then for any real numbers x and y satisfying ) exp log x log log x) 1+ε y x with x x 0 ε, A), the estimate ) ζ 2)ζ 3) u + 1 + 1/u)ρu)ch) π h x, y;, a) 8δ h + o1) πx) ζ 6) holds provided that ) A, gcda, ) = 1, and h 0, where δ h = 1 if h is even, and δ h = 1/2 if h is odd. Proof. In what follows, l always denotes a prime number. Let π h,l x;, a) = #{p x : P + p h) = l and p a mod )}. Let z = exp log log x) 2 ), and suppose that z Y x. Then, assuming that x is sufficiently large, we have π h x, Y ;, a) π h x, Y/e;, a) = π h,l x;, a) = Y/e<l Y = 1 b gcdb,)=1 1 b gcdb,)=1 Y/e<l Y m x h)/l, P + m) l ml+h prime ml+h a mod ) Y/e<l Y l b mod ) m xe/y, P + m) Y mb+h a mod ) 1 m x h)/l, P + m) l ml+h prime mb+h a mod ) Y/e<l Y l b mod ) ml+h prime 1. 1 16

By Lemma 6, we have the estimate Y/e<l Y l b mod ) ml+h prime 1 8C 2 + o1)) cmh) Y ϕ) log 2 Y. Note that the summation on the left hand side is actually 0 for sufficiently large x) if gcdm, h) > 1 or if both m and h are odd. Using the trivial ineuality cmh) ch)cm) and the estimate 14), it therefore follows that π h x, Y ;, a) π h x, Y/e;, a) 8δ h + o1)) By Corollary 1, we have ch) Y ϕ) log 2 Y π h x, Y ;, a) π h x, Y/e;, a) ch) Y 8δ h η + o1)) ϕ) log 2 Y where 8δ h η + o1)) ch) x log 2 Y ρ 1 b gcdb,)=1 1 b gcdb,)=1 log x log Y 1 η = ζ 2)ζ 3). ζ 6) m xe/y, P + m) Y mb+h a mod ) m ϕm). log x log Y + 1 ρ log Y ), Now let j 0 = logy/z). Using the above estimate, we have π h x, y;, a) π h x, z;, a) + j 0 j=0 1 + o1))ψx, z;, a) + 8δ h η + o1)) ch) x ) x Y πh x, y/e j ;, a) π h x, y/e j+1 ;, a) ) j 0 j=0 ) 1 log x j) ρ 2 j 1. 17

Arguing as on page 341 of [17], we have the estimate j 0 j=0 ) 1 log x j) ρ 2 j 1 ρu 1) log 2 y If y lies in the stated range, then as x, ρu 1) log 2 y = o u ρu) log x ), + 1 ρt) dt. 15) log x u 1 while the integral on the right hand side of 15) can be estimated using Lemma 5. Finally, using 8) with d = 1 together with Lemma 1, we have Ψx, z;, a) = The result follows. Ψx, z) 1 + o1)) = x ) log x ρ 1 + o1)). log log x) 2 We remark that the bound 4) stated in the introduction follows immediately from Theorem 2 using the trivial estimate ch) c)ch) together with 14). 5 Concluding Remarks We note that the range of Theorem 2 is slightly shorter than that of [17] given by 2). However, one can easily extend Theorem 2 to the same range with o1) replaced by O1); in this case, we lose the explicit form of the statement. The integral in Lemma 5 can be calculated precisely for certain values of u. For example, u 1 ρt) dt = { e γ + 1 u if 1 u 2, e γ + 3 2u + u 1) logu 1) if 2 u 3, where γ is the Euler-Mascheroni constant; similar expressions can be obtained whenever u is reasonably small and can be used in place of u+1+1/u)ρu) 18

in the statement of Theorem 2 to obtain better estimates. In this way, we find that 4 ζ2)ζ3) C 2 ζ6) u 1 ρt) dt < 1, u > u 0 = 3.3558619258..., hence it follows that for any fixed A > 0, we have lim inf x # {p x : p a mod ), P + p 1) x 0.295 } min > 1 1 log x) A πx)/ϕ)) 16, gcda,)=1 where P + n) is the largest prime divisor of n. We also remark that the pair 0.295, 1/16) can be replaced with 0.270, 1/2) or 0.257, 2/3), for instance. For = 1, the current record with the exponent 0.677 instead of 0.295 has been established in [2] though one loses the positivity in the density of primes), and it seems likely that by appropriately modifying the techniues of that paper, this stronger result might also be obtained for primes in arithmetic progressions. This has never been worked out explicitly, however, and doing so would necessarily entail many technical and tedious calculations; thus Theorem 2 provides a reasonably painless shortcut to albeit weaker) results of the same general type. In fact, the range of is uite generous and coincides with the range for which unconditional results have been obtained on the asymptotic formula for primes in arithmetic progressions. It is easy to see that any improvement of our principal tool, Lemma 6, will immediately lead to an improvement of Theorem 2 both with respect to the constant 8 and the range of ). One can also try to prove an analogue of Theorem 1 for the sum cm). m x, P + m) y m a mod ) Using 14), one sees that this sum is bounded by ζ 2)ζ 3) C 2 ζ 6) ρu) x 1 + O E x, y))), and any improvement in this estimate would lead to a corresponding improvement of Theorem 2. 19

In principle, it should be possible to improve the bound in Theorem 2 by about a factor of u) using the approach of [8], but as in the case of = 1) only in a narrower range of y; compare 2) and 3). As we have already mentioned any further progress to close the gap between 1) and Theorem 2 would be of great interest. Finally, we remark that by using similar techniues, it should be possible to obtain analogues of our results for primes p x in an arithmetic progression such that kp + h is y-smooth. References [1] W. R. Alford, A. Granville and C. Pomerance, There are infinitely many Carmichael numbers, Annals Math. 140 1994), 703-722. [2] R. C. Baker and G. Harman, Shifted primes without large prime factors, Acta Arith. 83 1998), 331 361. [3] N. de Bruijn, On the number of positive integers x and free of prime factors > y, Nederl. Acad. Wetensch. Proc. Ser. A 54 1951), 50 60. [4] C. Dartyge, G. Martin and G. Tenenbaum, Polynomial values free of large prime factors, Periodica Math. Hungar. 43 2001), 111 119. [5] K. Dickman, On the freuency of numbers containing prime factors of a certain relative magnitude, Ark. Mat. Astr. Fys. 22 1930), 1 14. [6] P. Erdős, On the normal number of prime factors of p 1 and some other related problems concerning Euler s φ-function, Quart. J. Math. Oxford Ser.) 6 1935), 205 213. [7] É. Fouvry and G. Tenenbaum, Entiers sans grand facteur premier en progressions arithmetiues, Proc. London Math. Soc. 3) 63 1991), 449 494. [8] É. Fouvry and G. Tenenbaum, Répartition statistiue des entiers sans grand facteur premier dans les progressions arithmétiues, Proc. London Math. Soc. 3) 72 1996), 481 514. [9] A. Granville, Integers, without large prime factors, in arithmetic progressions. I., Acta Math. 170 1993), 255 273. 20

[10] A. Granville, Integers, without large prime factors, in arithmetic progressions. II., Philos. Trans. Roy. Soc. London Ser. A 345 1993), 349 362. [11] A. Granville, Smooth numbers: computational number theory and beyond, Proc. MSRI Conf. Algorithmic Number Theory: Lattices, Number Fields, Curves, and Cryptography, Berkeley, 2000, J. Buhler and P. Stevenhagen, eds., Cambridge University Press, to appear. [12] H. Halberstam and H.-E. Richert, Sieve Methods, London Mathematical Society Monographs, No. 4, Academic Press, London-New York, 1974. [13] A. Hildebrand, On the number of positive integers x and free of prime factors > y, J. Number Theory 22 1986), 289 307. [14] G. Martin, An asymptotic formula for the number of smooth values of a polynomial, J. Number Theory 93 2002), 108 182. [15] P. Moree, A note on Artin s conjecture, Simon Stevin 67 1993), 255 257. [16] C. Pomerance, Popular values of Euler s function, Mathematika 27 1980), 84 89. [17] C. Pomerance and I. Shparlinski, Smooth orders and cryptographic applications, in Algorithmic Number Theory, 5th International Symposium, ANTS-V, Sydney, Australia, July 2002 Proceedings, C. Fieker and D. Kohel, eds., Lecture Notes in Computer Science 2369, Springer, 2002, 338 348. [18] K. Prachar, Primzahlverteilung, Springer-Verlag, Berlin, 1957. [19] G. Tenenbaum, Introduction to analytic and probabilistic number theory, University Press, Cambridge, UK, 1995. [20] S. A. Vanstone and R. J. Zuccherato, Short RSA keys and their applications, J. Cryptology 8 1995), 101 114. 21