English

S\'ark\"ozy's theorem for shifted primes with restricted digits

Number Theory 2025-10-16 v1

Abstract

For a base b2b\geq 2 and a set of digits A{0,...,b1}\mathcal{A}\subset \{0,...,b-1\}, let P\mathcal{P} denote the set of prime numbers with digits restricted to A\mathcal{A}, when written in base-bb. We prove that if ANA\subset \mathbb{N} has positive upper Banach density, then there exists a prime pPp\in \mathcal{P} and two elements a1,a2Aa_1,a_2\in A such that a2=a1+p1a_2=a_1+p-1. The key ingredients are the Furstenberg correspondence principle and a discretized Hardy-Littlewood circle method used by Maynard. As a byproduct of our work, we prove a Dirichlet-type theorem for the distribution of P\mathcal{P} in residue classes, and a Vinogradov-type theorem for the decay of associated exponential sums. These estimates arise from the unique structure of associated Fourier transforms, which take the form of Riesz products.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2510.13076,
  title  = {S\'ark\"ozy's theorem for shifted primes with restricted digits},
  author = {Alex Burgin},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2510.13076},
  year   = {2025}
}