POLYNOMIAL PATTERNS IN THE PRIMES

Let $P_{1},\ldots ,P_{k}:\mathbb{Z}\rightarrow \mathbb{Z}$ be polynomials of degree at most $d$ for some...

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Main Authors: TERENCE TAO, TAMAR ZIEGLER
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Cambridge University Press 2018-01-01
Series:Forum of Mathematics, Pi
Subjects:
Online Access:https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S2050508617000038/type/journal_article
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author TERENCE TAO
TAMAR ZIEGLER
author_facet TERENCE TAO
TAMAR ZIEGLER
author_sort TERENCE TAO
collection DOAJ
description Let $P_{1},\ldots ,P_{k}:\mathbb{Z}\rightarrow \mathbb{Z}$ be polynomials of degree at most $d$ for some $d\geqslant 1$ , with the degree $d$ coefficients all distinct, and admissible in the sense that for every prime $p$ , there exists integers $n,m$ such that $n+P_{1}(m),\ldots ,n+P_{k}(m)$ are all not divisible by $p$ . We show that there exist infinitely many natural numbers $n,m$ such that $n+P_{1}(m),\ldots ,n+P_{k}(m)$ are simultaneously prime, generalizing a previous result of the authors, which was restricted to the special case $P_{1}(0)=\cdots =P_{k}(0)=0$ (though it allowed for the top degree coefficients to coincide). Furthermore, we obtain an asymptotic for the number of such prime pairs $n,m$ with $n\leqslant N$ and $m\leqslant M$ with $M$ slightly less than $N^{1/d}$ . This asymptotic is already new in general in the homogeneous case $P_{1}(0)=\cdots =P_{k}(0)=0$ . Our arguments rely on four ingredients. The first is a (slightly modified) generalized von Neumann theorem of the authors, reducing matters to controlling certain averaged local Gowers norms of (suitable normalizations of) the von Mangoldt function. The second is a more recent concatenation theorem of the authors, controlling these averaged local Gowers norms by global Gowers norms. The third ingredient is the work of Green and the authors on linear equations in primes, allowing one to compute these global Gowers norms for the normalized von Mangoldt functions. Finally, we use the Conlon–Fox–Zhao densification approach to the transference principle to combine the preceding three ingredients together. In the special case $P_{1}(0)=\cdots =P_{k}(0)=0$ , our methods also give infinitely many $n,m$ with $n+P_{1}(m),\ldots ,n+P_{k}(m)$ in a specified set primes of positive relative density $\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FF}$ , with $m$ bounded by $\log ^{L}n$ for some $L$ independent of the density $\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FF}$ . This improves slightly on a result from our previous paper, in which $L$ was allowed to depend on $\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FF}$ .
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spelling doaj.art-1fb9d44bec6c4673b2e1d09fd68190072023-03-09T12:34:25ZengCambridge University PressForum of Mathematics, Pi2050-50862018-01-01610.1017/fmp.2017.3POLYNOMIAL PATTERNS IN THE PRIMESTERENCE TAO0TAMAR ZIEGLER1UCLA Department of Mathematics, Los Angeles, CA 90095-1596, USA;Einstein Institute of Mathematics, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, 91904, Israel;Let $P_{1},\ldots ,P_{k}:\mathbb{Z}\rightarrow \mathbb{Z}$ be polynomials of degree at most $d$ for some $d\geqslant 1$ , with the degree $d$ coefficients all distinct, and admissible in the sense that for every prime $p$ , there exists integers $n,m$ such that $n+P_{1}(m),\ldots ,n+P_{k}(m)$ are all not divisible by $p$ . We show that there exist infinitely many natural numbers $n,m$ such that $n+P_{1}(m),\ldots ,n+P_{k}(m)$ are simultaneously prime, generalizing a previous result of the authors, which was restricted to the special case $P_{1}(0)=\cdots =P_{k}(0)=0$ (though it allowed for the top degree coefficients to coincide). Furthermore, we obtain an asymptotic for the number of such prime pairs $n,m$ with $n\leqslant N$ and $m\leqslant M$ with $M$ slightly less than $N^{1/d}$ . This asymptotic is already new in general in the homogeneous case $P_{1}(0)=\cdots =P_{k}(0)=0$ . Our arguments rely on four ingredients. The first is a (slightly modified) generalized von Neumann theorem of the authors, reducing matters to controlling certain averaged local Gowers norms of (suitable normalizations of) the von Mangoldt function. The second is a more recent concatenation theorem of the authors, controlling these averaged local Gowers norms by global Gowers norms. The third ingredient is the work of Green and the authors on linear equations in primes, allowing one to compute these global Gowers norms for the normalized von Mangoldt functions. Finally, we use the Conlon–Fox–Zhao densification approach to the transference principle to combine the preceding three ingredients together. In the special case $P_{1}(0)=\cdots =P_{k}(0)=0$ , our methods also give infinitely many $n,m$ with $n+P_{1}(m),\ldots ,n+P_{k}(m)$ in a specified set primes of positive relative density $\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FF}$ , with $m$ bounded by $\log ^{L}n$ for some $L$ independent of the density $\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FF}$ . This improves slightly on a result from our previous paper, in which $L$ was allowed to depend on $\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FF}$ .https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S2050508617000038/type/journal_article11B3011N32 (primary)
spellingShingle TERENCE TAO
TAMAR ZIEGLER
POLYNOMIAL PATTERNS IN THE PRIMES
Forum of Mathematics, Pi
11B30
11N32 (primary)
title POLYNOMIAL PATTERNS IN THE PRIMES
title_full POLYNOMIAL PATTERNS IN THE PRIMES
title_fullStr POLYNOMIAL PATTERNS IN THE PRIMES
title_full_unstemmed POLYNOMIAL PATTERNS IN THE PRIMES
title_short POLYNOMIAL PATTERNS IN THE PRIMES
title_sort polynomial patterns in the primes
topic 11B30
11N32 (primary)
url https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S2050508617000038/type/journal_article
work_keys_str_mv AT terencetao polynomialpatternsintheprimes
AT tamarziegler polynomialpatternsintheprimes