English

The distribution of integers with a divisor in a given interval

Number Theory 2008-11-06 v5

Abstract

We determine the order of magnitude of H(x,y,z), the number of integers n\le x having a divisor in (y,z], for all x,y and z. We also study H_r(x,y,z), the number of integers n\le x having exactly r divisors in (y,z]. When r=1 we establish the order of magnitude of H_1(x,y,z) for all x,y,z satisfying z\le x^{0.49}. For every r\ge 2, C>1C>1 and ϵ>0\epsilon>0, we determine the the order of magnitude of H_r(x,y,z) when y is large and y+y/(\log y)^{\log 4 -1 - \epsilon} \le z \le \min(y^{C},x^{1/2-\epsilon}). As a consequence of these bounds, we settle a 1960 conjecture of Erdos and several related conjectures. One key element of the proofs is a new result on the distribution of uniform order statistics.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.math/0401223,
  title  = {The distribution of integers with a divisor in a given interval},
  author = {Kevin Ford},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:math/0401223},
  year   = {2008}
}

Comments

Final version. Greatly simplified proof of Lemma 4.7 in Sec. 10, references updated, other minor corrections

R2 v1 2026-07-22T17:01:40.091Z