English

Log-free bounds on exponential sums over primes

Number Theory 2026-01-28 v2

Abstract

We establish completely log-free bounds for exponential sums over the primes and the M\"{o}bius function. Let 0<η1/100<\eta \leq 1/10, and suppose α=a/q+δ/x\alpha = a/q + \delta/x, with (a,q)=1(a,q)=1 and δx1/5+η/q|\delta| \leq x^{1/5 + \eta}/q, and set δ0=max(1,δ/4)\delta_0 = \max(1, |\delta|/4). For xx0(η)x \geq x_0(\eta) sufficiently large, we show that: \begin{equation*} \Biggl| \sum_{n \leq x} \Lambda(n) e(n\alpha) \Biggr| \leq \frac{q}{\varphi(q)} \frac{\mathscr{F}_{\eta}\bigl( \frac{\log \delta_0 q}{\log x}, \frac{\log^+ \delta_0/q}{\log x} \bigr) \cdot x }{\sqrt{\delta_0 q}} \ \text{ and } \ \Biggl| \sum_{n \leq x} \mu(n) e(n\alpha) \Biggr| \leq \frac{\mathscr{G}_{\eta}\bigl( \frac{\log \delta_0 q}{\log x}, \frac{\log^+ \delta_0/q}{\log x} \bigr) \cdot x}{\sqrt{\delta_0 \varphi(q)}}, \end{equation*} for all 1qx2/5η1 \leq q \leq x^{2/5 - \eta}, where log+z=max(logz,0)\log^+ z = \max(\log z, 0), and the functions Fη\mathscr{F}_{\eta} and Gη\mathscr{G}_{\eta} are explicitly determined, taking small to moderate values. These bounds improve substantially upon the existing results - particularly with respect to the permissible ranges of qq, δ\delta in which log-free bounds are known to hold and potentially with respect to asymptotic functions Fη\mathscr{F}_{\eta} and Gη\mathscr{G}_{\eta} as well. Moreover, the range 1qx2/5η1 \leq q \leq x^{2/5 - \eta} is essentially the best possible we can expect. The main innovation is a sieve-weighted version of Vaughan's identity (Lemma 2.1), which is effectively log-free. We employ several ideas and results from the pioneering work of Helfgott, and particularly, they play a central role in ensuring the log-freeness of the type-I contribution. Also, like in his work, these bounds improve as δ\delta increases.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2505.07803,
  title  = {Log-free bounds on exponential sums over primes},
  author = {Priyamvad Srivastav},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2505.07803},
  year   = {2026}
}

Comments

32 pages, minor corrections, pdf of ancillary file included

R2 v1 2026-06-28T23:30:00.895Z