English

Exponential sums over primes are unbounded

Number Theory 2025-09-19 v2

Abstract

We prove prime exponential sums have no better than square root cancellation on average on short intervals, in the sense that 1xy<nxn<mn+y1mxΛ(m)e(αm)2ylogy\frac{1}{x} \sum_{-y< n\le x} \left|\sum_{\substack{n< m \le n+y\\ 1\le m \le x}} \Lambda(m) \mathrm{e}(\alpha m)\right|^2 \gg y\log y whenever yx1/3ε.y \ll x^{1/3-\varepsilon}. This answers a question of Ramar\'e by proving the lower bound supnxmnΛ(m)e(αm)x1/6ε.\sup_{n\le x} \left|\sum_{m\le n} \Lambda(m) \mathrm{e}(\alpha m)\right| \gg x^{1/6 - \varepsilon}.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2508.18394,
  title  = {Exponential sums over primes are unbounded},
  author = {Pierre-Alexandre Bazin},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2508.18394},
  year   = {2025}
}

Comments

10 pages

R2 v1 2026-07-01T05:05:18.110Z