KVPY Project Report : Analytic Number Theory

Sanal S Prasad
July 17, 2014

Introduction
Analytic number theory is the use of techniques used in analysis to understand
the results of number theory. During the project, the proof of Dirichlets theorem and that of the Prime number theorem were studied.

1
1.1

Proof of Dirichlets Theorem

Dirichlets Theorem

Theorem 1. Let a and d be co-prime integers, then the sequence a, a+d, a+2d...
contains infinitely many primes.

1.2

Dirichlets Characters

Definition 1. A Dirichlet character modulo d is a function : Z C, such

that it satisfies :
(mn) = (m)(n)
(m + d) = (m)
(m) = 0, if gcd(m, d) > 1
There exist exactly (d) Dirichlet characters modulo d which take values
from the (d)th roots of unity. For example, the following table gives the
Dirichlet characters modulo 9. Here = exp
3 .
0
1
2
3
4
5

0
0
0
0
0
0
0

1
1
1
1
1
1
1

2
1

2
1

3
0
0
0
0
0
0

4
1
2

1
2

5
1
2

1
2

6
0
0
0
0
0
0

7
1

2
1

8
1
1
1
1
1
1

The principal Dirichlet character, 0 is the Dirichlet character that take

value 1 at all integers co-prime to d. The following orthogonality relation also
1

holds
(
X

(m) (n) =

0,
m 6 n (mod d)
(d), if m n (mod d)

(1)

This helps us to recognize an integer modulo d.

1.3

Primes in an AP

P
We consider the series pa (mod d) ps . The sum absolutely converges when
<(s) > 1. If we can show that the sum diverges as s 1, then there will be
infinitely many primes in the sequence a, a + d, a + 2d, a + 3d...
The sum can be rewritten using (1) to give
X
1 X
(a)
(p)ps
(d)
p
X
1 X s
1 X
p +
(a)
(p)ps
(d)
(d)
p
6=0

p-d

s
If we can show that
is bounded for all 6= 0 as s 1, then
p (p)p
P
Dirichlets theorem follows as we know that p-d p1 diverges.[3]

1.4

Relation with L(s, )

Definition 2. L(s, ) =

n=1

(n)ns

<(s) > 1

Since, is multiplicative, the sum can be expanded as in 2.3 to obtain

Y
L(s, ) =
(1 (p)ps )1
p

log L(s, ) =

log (1 (p)ps )

And from the inequality,


 




 X X
X
(p)pms X


s 
s 

(p)p 
(p)p  = 
log L(s, )


  p
m
p
p
m=1



X X
(p)pms 

=



m
p m=2

X 1

p2
p

X
1
2

=
n2
6
n=1

P
s
it follows that
converges whenever log L(s, ) converges, that is
p (p)p
whenever L(s, ) converges and is non-vanishing. The multi-valuedness of the
complex logarithm presents a technical difficulty, however the difference still
remains bounded.[1]

1.5

Non-vanishing of L(s, ) as s 1

From Abels convergence criterion, L(s, ) converges for all 6= 0 and <(s) >
0. The function L(s, 0 ) has a simple pole at s = 1. It follows from the
properties of the -function mention in 2.3 and the following relation. It also
helps to extend the definition of L(s, 0 ) to <(s) > 0.
Y
L(s, 0 ) = (s) (1 ps )
p|d

Definition 3. d (s) :=

L(s, )

If any of the L(s, ) had vanished, it would have killed the simple pole
of L(s, 0 ) and the d (s) would have a removable singularity at s = 1. So,
d (s) would be analytic in the region <(s) > 1 and thus its definition could be
extended to <(s) > 0, using the definition of L(s, ).[2]
YY
d (s) =
(1 ps )1

YY
p

(1 ps )1

Y
(d)
=
(1 pf (p)s ) f (p)
p-d

for s > 1

Here f (p) represents the order of p in the group of reduced residues modulo d.
The idea used here is that (p) takes the value from f (p)th root of unity and
each root appears (d)/f (p) times. The following relation is used to simplify
the product.
 

n1
Y
i2k
1 exp
x = 1 xn
n
k=0

This tells that if lims1 L(s, ) vanished for non-real valued , then lims1 L(s, )

would also vanish. Due to the double zero, lims1 d (s) would also vanish, leading to a contradiction. Therefore, we only need to check for the non-vanishing
of L(s, ) for real valued .

1.6

Non-vanishing of L(s, ) as s 1 for real

We begin with the following theorems.

Theorem 2. Let be a non-principal Dirichlet character mod d, and f be a

non-negative function with continuous negative derivative and let limx f (x) =
0, then the infinite series

X
(n)f (n)
n=1

converges and

(n)f (n) =

n=1

(n)f (n) + O(f (x))

nx

This
be proved using Abel summation and using the idea that the partial
Pcan
n
sums, k=1 (k) are bounded.[3]
P
Theorem 3. Let A(n) =
d|n (d) for a real Dirichlet character , then
A(n) 0, moreover if n is a perfect square, then A(n) 1
P
P
. Then,
Let A(n) = d|n (d) and B(x) = nx A(n)
n
B(x) =

X A(n)

n

nx

X
n=m2 ,nx

X 1
X A(m2 )
A(n)
=

m
n
m

m x

m x

That is, B(x) as x . Now summing differently,

B(x) =

X A(n)

nx

X (d) X (d) X 1
=

q
qd dx d

(q,d)
qdx

qx/d

r

X (d) 
x

=
2
+ O(1)
d
d
dx

X (d)
X (d)

=2 x
+O
d
d
dx
dx



1
= 2 xL(1, ) + O
+ O (L(1/2, ))
x

= 2 xL(1, ) + O(1)
Thus L(1, ) could not be 0, otherwise it will lead to a contradiction.[3]
This finishes the proof of Dirichlets theorem.

2
2.1

Proof of the Prime Number Theorem

The Prime Number Theorem

Definition 4. (x) := number of primes upto x

4

The aim of the proof is to show that (x)xlog x 1 as x . That is the

number of primes upto x is approximately logx x .

2.2

Restating the Prime Number Theorem

Definition 5. (x) =

Definition 6. (x) =

px

log p

pm x

log p

The two functions, and instead of summing the weights of 1 over primes,
sum weights of log p over primes and prime powers respectively. PNT is often
stated in the following form.[3]
(x)
(x)
1
1
as x
x
x
These two forms can be further used to restate PNT in terms of the Mobius-
function.

X
(n)
=0
n
n=1
Conversely, the convergence of the sum implies the PNT.

2.3

The function

Definition 7. (s) :=

n=1

ns

<(s) > 1

(s) can also be cast into the following multiplicative form.

Y
(s) =
(1 ps )1
<(s) > 1
p

It can be checked that each term in the sum appears exactly once in the product
form (This follows from the fundamental theorem of arithmetic, the uniqueness
of prime factorization.) Also the function can be analytically extended to a
meromorphic function with a simple pole at s = 1 and no zeroes on the line
<(s) = 1.[4]
Z

X
1
1
1

dx
=
(s)
s
s 1 n=1 ns
x
1

Z n+1 
X
1
1
=
s dx
ns
x
n=1 n
The right side is absolutely convergent for <(s) > 0 because
Z n+1 

  Z n+1 Z x

 

1
1
1



s dx  = s
dt dx

s
s+1
n
x
t
n
 n  n
 1 
s  s+1 
n
s
<(s)+1
n
5

So we extend the definition of the -function to <(s) > 0 by defining

X
1
(s) =
+
s 1 n=1

n+1

1
1
s
ns
x


dx

<(s) > 0 and s 6= 1

This also tells us that the -function has a simple pole at 1 with residue 1.
lim (s 1)(s) = 1

s1

2.4

Relation of PNT to the function

Consider the series:

X
(n)
ns
n=1

takes values 1, 1 and 0 at 1, the primes and prime powers respectively

and is multiplicative. So for any <(s) > 1,

X
(n)
=
ns
n=1

Y (1)
ps

SP(primes) pS

Y
(1 ps )
p

1
(s)

It remains to be shown that the same formula holds when <(s) = 1. For this,
we look at a Tauberian theorem due to D J Newman[5].
P
Theorem 4. Suppose |an | 1 and form the series
an ns which clearly
converges to an analytic function
F
(s)
for
<(s)
>
1.
If,
in
fact F (s) is analytic
P
throughout <(s) 1, then
an ns converges throughout, <(s) 1.
Since we know that (s1)(s) is analytic, we just need to show that (s) 6= 0
for <(s) = 1

2.5

Non-vanishing of (s) on the line <(s) = 1

For any real ,

2(1 + cos )2 = 3 + 4 cos + cos 2 0

(2)

Assume (1 + t) = 0 for some real t, then define D(s) as

D(s) = (s)3 (s + t)4 (s + 2t)
At s = 1, the zeroes at s = 1 + t would cancel the poles at s = 1 and D(s)
would vanish at s = 1. If we can prove that D(s) does not vanish at s = 1 for

any t, then no such t could exist. Now for any <(s) > 0,
d log (s)
d X
=
log(1 ps )
ds
ds p
=

d X X pms
ds p m=1 m

XX
d pms
ds m
p m=1

XX

pms log p

p m=1

Similarly for <(s) > 0,

XX
d
(3 + 4pmt + p2mt )pms log p
log D(s) =
ds
p m=1

Now multiplying by (s 1) and letting s 1 along the real line from the
right side would give the order of the zero(negative for poles) of D(s) at s = 1.
However, due to (2), the real part of limit cannot be positive. So D(s) has no
zero at s = 1.
This proves that (s) does not vanish along <(s) = 1 and in turn proves the
prime number theorem.[6]

Acknowledgments
I thank Prof. Manjunath Krishnapur, Department of Mathematics, Indian Institute of Science, for guiding me in the project, for helping me select the topic,
suggesting understandable reading materials and for the follow ups he suggested
after the completing the project.
Thanks to my classmate, Ishan Banerjee who kept up with my project also kept
me updated about his own work.

References
[1] T.W. Korner, Fourier Analysis, Cambridge University Press
[2] P. L. Clark, Dirichlets Theorem on Primes in Arithmetic Progression,
http://math.uga.edu/ pete/4400DT.pdf
[3] T.M. Apostol, Introduction to Analytic Number Theory, Springer
[4] D. Zagier, Newmans Short Proof of the Prime Number Theorem, The American Mathematical Monthly, Vol. 104, No. 8 (Oct., 1997), pp. 705-708
7

[5] D.J. Newman, Simple Analytic Proof of the Prime Number Theorem, The
American Mathematical Monthly, Vol. 87, No. 9 (Nov., 1980), pp. 693-696
[6] P. Garrett, Simple Proof of the Prime Number Theorem, etc., http://wwwusers.math.umn.edu/ garrett/m/v/pnt.pdf