> Ernie Croot

Ernie Croot

Title: ``Smooth Numbers in Short Intervals''

Abstract: There are several algorithms in computational number theory, whose run time analysis require good lower bounds for $\psi([x,x+4 \sqrt{x}], x^\epsilon)$, which is the number of integers in the interval $[x,x+4\sqrt{x}]$ having no prime divisor $>x^\epsilon$. Unfortunately, even showing that $\psi([x,x+4\sqrt{x}], x^\epsilon) > 0$ for all $\epsilon > 0$ and sufficiently large $x$ seems to be a very difficult problem, and remains unsolved. In this talk I will give sketch of a proof that for all $\delta > 0$, there exists $x_0(\delta)$ such that if $x > x_0(\delta)$, then $$ \psi([x,x+c(\delta)\sqrt{x}], x^{3/(14\sqrt{e})+\delta}) > x/\log^{\log 4+o(1)}x, $$ where $c(\delta)$ is some constant which depends only on $\delta$. This result is the sharpest of its kind for intervals of the form $[x,x+c(\delta)\sqrt{x}]$.


Robert F. Coleman
Last modified: Mon Jan 24 15:19:17 PST 2000