Mertens' prime product formula, dissected
Number Theory
2021-08-31 v3 Combinatorics
Abstract
In 1874, Mertens famously proved an asymptotic formula for the product over all primes up to . On the other hand, one may expand Mertens' prime product into series over numbers with only small prime factors. It is natural to restrict such series to numbers with a fixed number of prime factors. In this article, we obtain formulae for these series for each , which together dissect Mertens' original estimate. The proof is by elementary methods of a combinatorial flavor.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.2002.03361,
title = {Mertens' prime product formula, dissected},
author = {Jared Duker Lichtman},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2002.03361},
year = {2021}
}
Comments
Interprets Corollary 1.5 in terms of "friable regularity," under extended definition from convergent series to partial sums of arbitrary sequences. Incorporates referee comments