ON SHIFTED PRIMES AND BALANCED PRIMES

The asymptotic order of the number of primes, which are such that the shift by a fixed integer is a number supported by a given set of primes times a coprime squarefree number, is determined. The order is also determined when the shift and its negative have this same shape. In each case the order is dependent only on the set of primes and the squarefree core of the shift.

FLAT PRIMES AND THIN PRIMES

A number is called upper (lower) flat if its shift by +1 ( −1) is a power of 2 times a squarefree number. If the squarefree number is 1 or a single odd prime then the original number is called upper (lower) thin. Upper flat numbers which are primes arise in the study of multi-perfect numbers. Here we show that the lower or upper flat primes have asymptotic density relative to that of the full set of primes given by twice Artin’s constant, that more than 53% of the primes are both lower and upper flat, and that the series of reciprocals of the lower or the upper thin primes converges.

An estimate for trigonometrical sums over square-free integers with a constant number of prime factors

1. In deriving an expression for the number of representations of a sufficiently large integer N in the formwhere k: is a positive integer, s(k) a suitably large function of k and pi is a prime number, i = 1, 2, …, s(k), by Vinogradov's method it is necessary to obtain estimates for trigonometrical sums of the typewhere ω = l/k and the real number a satisfies 0 ≦ α ≦ 1 and is “near” a rational number a/q, (a, q) = 1, with “large” denominator q. See Estermann (1), Chapter 3, for the case k = 1 or Hua (2), for the general case. The meaning of “near” and “arge” is made clear below—Lemma 4—as it is necessary for us to quote Hua's estimate. In this paper, in Theorem 1, an estimate is obtained for the trigonometrical sumwhere α satisfies the same conditions as above and where π denotes a squarefree number with r prime factors. This estimate enables one to derive expressions for the number of representations of a sufficiently large integer N in the formwhere s(k) has the same meaning as above and where πri, i = 1, 2, …, s(k), denotes a square-free integer with ri prime factors.