English

Covering integers by $x^2 + dy^2$

Number Theory 2024-10-31 v2

Abstract

What proportion of integers nNn \leqslant N may be expressed as x2+dy2x^2 + dy^2 for some dΔd \leqslant \Delta, with x,yx,y integers? Writing Δ\Delta as (logN)log22αloglogN(\log N)^{\log 2} 2^{\alpha \sqrt{\log \log N}} for some α(,)\alpha \in (-\infty, \infty), we show that the answer is Φ(α)+o(1)\Phi(\alpha) + o(1), where Φ\Phi is the Gaussian distribution function Φ(α)=12παex2/2dx\Phi(\alpha) = \frac{1}{2\pi} \int^{\alpha}_{-\infty} e^{-x^2/2} dx. A consequence of this is a phase transition: almost none of the integers nNn \leqslant N can be represented by x2+dy2x^2 + dy^2 with d(logN)log2εd \leqslant (\log N)^{\log 2 - \varepsilon}, but almost all of them can be represented by x2+dy2x^2 + dy^2 with d(logN)log2+εd \leqslant (\log N)^{\log 2 + \varepsilon}.

Cite

@article{arxiv.2401.04817,
  title  = {Covering integers by $x^2 + dy^2$},
  author = {Ben Green and Kannan Soundararajan},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2401.04817},
  year   = {2024}
}

Comments

35 pages, to appear in Journal of the Institute of Mathematics of Jussieu. Minor revisions from first version

R2 v1 2026-06-28T14:12:44.204Z