Unit Fractions

4 Fourier Analysis

This section contains the part of the proof that uses Fourier analysis to reduce finding solutions to a combinatorial problem involving divisors.

In this section, we write \([A]\) for the lowest common multiple of \(A\) (if \(A\) is a finite set of naturals).

4.1 Local definitions

Definition 4.1 ✓
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For any finite set \(A\) of natural numbers and integer \(k\geq 1\) we write \(F(A;k)\) for the count of the number of subsets \(S\subset A\) such that \(kR(S)\) is an integer.

Definition 4.2 ✓
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Let \(J(A) = (-[A]/2,[A]/2]\cap \mathbb {Z}\backslash \{ 0\} \).

Definition 4.3 ✓
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For any finite set of naturals \(B\) and integer \(t\), we define \(C(B;t) = \prod _{n\in B}\left\lvert \cos (\pi t/n)\right\rvert \).

Definition 4.4 ✓
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For any finite set of naturals \(A\) and integer \(k\geq 1\), and real \(K{\gt}0\), we define the ‘major arc’ corresponding to \(t\in \mathbb {Z}\) as

\[ \mathfrak {M}(t;A,k,K) = \{ h\in J(A): \left\lvert h-t[A]/k\right\rvert \leq K/2k\} \]

Let \(\mathfrak {M}(A,k,K) = \cup _{t\in \mathbb {Z}}\mathfrak {M}(t;A,k,K)\).

Definition 4.5 ✓
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Let \(I_h(K,k)\) be the interval of length \(K\) centred at \(kh\), and let \(\mathfrak {m}_1(A,k,K,\delta )\) be those \(h\in J(A)\backslash \mathfrak {M}(A,k,K)\) such that

\[ \# \{ n\in A : \textrm{no element of }I_h(K,k)\textrm{ is divisible by }n\} \geq \delta . \]

Let \(\mathfrak {m}_2(A,k,K,\delta )\) be the rest of \(J(A)\backslash \mathfrak {M}(A,k,K)\).

4.2 Precursor general lemmas

Lemma 4.6 ✓
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For any \(n,m\in \mathbb {N}\), if \(e(x) = e^{2\pi ix}\), then if \(I\) is any set of \(m\) consecutive integers then

\[ 1_{m\mid n}=\frac{1}{m}\sum _{h\in I}e(h n/m). \]

Proof ▼

If \(m\mid n\) then \(n/m\) is an integer, so \(e(hn/m)=1\) for all \(h\in \mathbb {Z}\), so the right-hand side is \(1\).

If \(m\nmid n\) then \(e(n/m)\neq 1\). Let \(S=\sum _{h\in I}e(hn/m)\), so it suffices to show that \(S=0\). Using \(e(x+y)=e(x)e(y)\) we have

\[ e(n/m)S = \sum _{h\in I}e((h+1)n/m). \]

If \(r=\min (I)\) and \(s=\max (I)\) then the right-hand side is \(S + e((s+1)n/m)-e(rn/m)\). But since \(I\) is a set of \(m\) consecutive integers we know that \(s=r+m-1\), and so

\[ e((s+1)n/m)-e(rn/m) = e(rn/m+n)-e(rn/m)=e(rn/m)e(n)-e(rn/m)=0, \]

since \(e(n)=1\). Therefore \(e(n/m)S=S\), and hence since \(e(n/m)\neq 1\), this forces \(S=0\) as required.

Lemma 4.7 ✓
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Let \(A\) be a finite set of natural numbers not containing \(0\). If

\[ \mathcal{P}_A = \{ p \textrm{ prime}: \exists n\in A : p \mid n\} \]

and for all \(p\in \mathcal{P}_A\) then \(r_p\geq 0\) is the greatest integer such that \(p^{r_p}\) divides some \(n\in A\), then

\[ [A]=\prod _{p\in \mathcal{P}_A}p^{r_p}. \]
(NOTE: This is a generally useful fact when working with lowest common multiples, perhaps this should be in mathlib somewhere.)

Proof ▼

We first note that if \(p\mid [A]\) then \(p\in \mathcal{P}_A\). If not, suppose \(p\not\in \mathcal{P}_A\) and \(p\mid [A]\). Let \(M=[A]/p\). We claim every \(n\in A\) divides \(M\), contradicting the definition of lowest common multiple. It suffices to show that if a prime power \(q^r\mid n\) then \(q\mid M\). But we know \(q^r\mid [A]=Mp\), and \((q^r,p)=1\), so \(q\mid M\) as required.

By the fundamental theorem of arithmetic, we can write \([A] = \prod _{p\in \mathcal{P}_A}p^{s_p}\) for some integers \(s_p\geq 0\). It remains to show that \(s_p=r_p\).

That \(s_p\geq r_p\) follows from the fact that \(p^{r_p}\mid n\) for some \(n\in A\) by definition, hence \(p^{r_p}\mid [A]\), hence \(r_p\leq s_p\).

Suppose that \(s_p{\gt}r_p\), and as above consider \(M=[A]/p\). We claim every \(n\in A\) divides \(M\), the required contradiction. If a prime power \(q^r\mid n\) with \(q\neq p\) then \(q\mid Mp\) hence \(q\mid M\). If \(p^r\mid n\) then \(r\leq r_p\), so \(p^r\mid p^{r_p}\mid p^{s_p-1}\mid M\), as required.

Lemma 4.8 ✓
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If \(A\) is a finite set of natural numbers not containing \(0\) such that if \(q\in \mathcal{Q}_A\) then \(q\leq X\), then \([A]\leq e^{O(X)}\).

Proof ▼

We have \([A]=\prod _{p\in \mathcal{P}_A}p^{r_p}\), where \(p^{r_p}\in \mathcal{Q}_A\), by Lemma 4.7. By hypothesis \(p^{r_p}\leq X\) and so \([A]\leq X^{\left\lvert \mathcal{P}_A\right\rvert }\). The set \(\mathcal{P}_A\) is a subset of all primes \(\leq X\), and so \(\left\lvert \mathcal{P}_A\right\rvert \leq \pi (X)\ll X/\log X\) by Chebyshev’s estimate Lemma 2.4. Therefore

\[ [A]\leq X^{O(X/\log X)}=e^{O(X)}. \]

Lemma 4.9 ✓
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If \(x\in [0,1/2]\) then

\[ \cos (\pi x) \leq e^{-2x^2}. \]

Proof ▼

We have Jordan’s inequality, which says \(\sin (\pi x)\geq 2x\) for all \(x\in [0,1/2]\). Therefore

\[ \cos (\pi x)^2 = 1-\sin (\pi x)^2\leq 1-4x^2. \]

Since \(1-y\leq e^{-y}\) for all \(y\geq 0\), the right-hand side is \(\leq e^{-4x^2}\). Taking square roots, and using \(\cos (\pi x)\geq 0\) for all \(x\in [0,1/2]\), yields

\[ \cos (\pi x) \leq e^{-2x^2}. \]

Lemma 4.10 ✓
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Let \(A\) be a finite set of naturals not containing \(0\). For any \(n\in A\), let \(\mathcal{Q}_A(n)\) denote all those \(q\in \mathcal{Q}_A\) such that \(n\in A_q\), then

\[ \left\lvert \mathcal{Q}_A(n)\right\rvert \leq \tfrac {1}{\log 2}\log n. \]

Proof ▼

The first step is to show that \(\prod _{q\in \mathcal{Q}(n)}q\mid n\) (in fact they’re equal, but all we need is the one direction). This can be shown by showing that every \(q\in \mathcal{Q}(n)\) divides \(n\), since \(n\in A_q\) implies \(q\mid n\), and then noting that any two distinct \(q_1,q_2\in \mathcal{Q}(n)\) are coprime. If not, then since they are prime powers, they must both be powers of the same prime, say \(q_1=p^{r_1}{\lt} q_2=p^{r_2}\). Since \(n\in A_{q_2}\) we have \(p^{r_2}\mid n\), but then \(p\mid n/q_1\), so \(p\mid (q_1,n/q_1)\), and so \(n\not\in A_{q_1}\).

Therefore \(\prod _{q\in \mathcal{Q}(n)}q\leq n\). Since all prime powers are \(\geq 2\) it follows that \(2^{\left\lvert \mathcal{Q}(n)\right\rvert }\leq n\), and the result follows taking logarithms.

4.3 Towards the main proposition

Lemma 4.11 ✓
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If \(A\) is a finite set of natural numbers not containing \(0\) and \(k\geq 1\) is an integer then

\[ F(A;k)= \frac{1}{[A]}\sum _{-[A]/2{\lt} h\leq [A]/2}\prod _{n\in A}(1+e(kh/n)). \]

Proof ▼

For any \(S\subset A\), \(k\sum _{n\in S}\frac{1}{n}\in \mathbb {Z}\) if and only if \(k\sum _{n\in S}\frac{[A]}{n}\in [A]\cdot \mathbb {Z}\). By definition \(n\mid [A]\) for all \(n\in A\), and so \(k\sum _{n\in S}\frac{[A]}{n}\) is an integer. It is \(\geq 0\) since each summand is. Therefore by Lemma 4.6, if \(I\) is any set of \([A]\) consecutive integers

\[ 1_{k\sum _{n\in S}\frac{1}{n}\in \mathbb {Z}}=1_{[A]\mid k\sum _{n\in S}\frac{[A]}{n}} = \frac{1}{[A]}\sum _{h\in I}e(kh\sum _{n\in S}\frac{1}{n}). \]

Therefore, changing summation,

\[ F(A;k) = \sum _{S\subset A}1_{k\sum _{n\in S}\frac{1}{n}\in \mathbb {Z}} = \frac{1}{[A]} \sum _{h\in I}\sum _{S\subset A}\prod _{n\in S}e(kh/n). \]

The lemma now follows choosing \(I=(-[A]/2,[A]/2]\cap \mathbb {Z}\), and using the general fact that for any indexed set of complex numbers \((x_i)_{i\in I}\)

\[ \sum _{J\subset I}\prod _{j\in J}x_j = \prod _{i\in I}(1+x_i). \]

Lemma 4.12 ✓
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If \(k\geq 1\) is an integer and \(A\) is a finite set of natural numbers such that there is no \(S\subset A\) such that \(R(S)=1/k\), and \(R(A){\lt}2/k\), then

\[ \sum _{-[A]/2{\lt} h\leq [A]/2}\Re \left( \prod _{n\in A}(1+e(kh/n))\right)= [A]. \]

Proof ▼

For any \(S\subset A\) we have \(k\sum _{n\in S}\frac{1}{n}\leq kR(A){\lt}2\), and therefore if \(k\sum _{n\in S}\frac{1}{n} \in \mathbb {N}\) then \(k\sum _{n\in S}\frac{1}{n} =0\) or \(=1\). The latter can’t happen by assumption, so \(k\sum _{n\in S}\frac{1}{n} =0\). A non-empty sum of \({\gt}0\) summands is \({\gt}0\), so if \(k\sum _{n\in S}\frac{1}{n}\in \mathbb {Z}\) then \(S=\emptyset \). Therefore \(F(A;k)=1\).

By Lemma 4.11 therefore

\[ 1=\frac{1}{[A]}\sum _{-[A]/2{\lt} h\leq [A]/2}\prod _{n\in A}(1+e(kh/n)). \]

The conclusion follows multiplying both sides by \([A]\) and taking real parts of both sides.

Lemma 4.13 ✓
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If \(k\geq 1\) is an integer and \(A\) is a finite set of natural numbers such that there is no \(S\subset A\) such that \(R(S)=1/k\), and \(R(A){\lt}2/k\), and \([A]\leq 2^{\left\lvert A\right\rvert -1}\) then

\[ \sum _{h\in J(A)}\Re \left( \prod _{n\in A}(1+e(kh/n))\right)\leq -2^{\left\lvert A\right\rvert -1}. \]

Proof ▼

By Lemma 4.12

\[ \sum _{-[A]/2{\lt} h\leq [A]/2}\Re \left( \prod _{n\in A}(1+e(kh/n))\right)= [A]. \]

By assumption the right-hand side is \(\leq 2^{\left\lvert A\right\rvert -1}\).

When \(h=0\)

\[ \Re \left( \prod _{n\in A}(1+e(kh/n))\right)= \Re \left( \prod _{n\in A}2\right)=2^{\left\lvert A\right\rvert }. \]

Therefore

\[ \sum _{h\in J(A)}\Re \left( \prod _{n\in A}(1+e(kh/n))\right)+2^{\left\lvert A\right\rvert }\leq 2^{\left\lvert A\right\rvert -1}, \]

and the result follows after rearranging.

Lemma 4.14 ✓
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If \(A\) is a finite set of integers and \(K\) is a real such that \([A]{\gt}K\) then, for any integer \(k\geq 1\), the sets \(\mathfrak {M}(t;A,k,K)\) are disjoint for distinct \(t\in \mathbb {Z}\).

Proof ▼

Suppose not and \(h\in \mathfrak {M}(t_1)\cap \mathfrak {M}(t_2)\). By definition,

\[ \left\lvert hk-t_1[A]\right\rvert \leq K/2 \]

and

\[ \left\lvert hk-t_2[A]\right\rvert \leq K/2, \]

and so by the triangle inequality \([A]\left\lvert t_1-t_2\right\rvert \leq K\). Since \(t_1\neq t_2\), we know \(\left\lvert t_1-t_2\right\rvert \geq 1\), and so \([A]\leq K\), contradicting the assumption.

Lemma 4.15 ✓
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For any finite set of natural numbers \(A\) and \(\theta \in \mathbb {R}\)

\[ \Re \left( \prod _{n\in A}(1+e(\theta /n))\right)=2^{\left\lvert A\right\rvert }\cos (\pi \theta R(A))\prod _{n\in A}\cos (\pi \theta /n). \]

Proof ▼

Rewrite each factor in the product using \(1+e(\theta /n)=2e(\theta /2n)\cos (\pi \theta /n)\), so

\[ \Re \left( \prod _{n\in A}(1+e(\theta /n))\right) = \Re \left( 2^{\left\lvert A\right\rvert }e(\theta R(A)/2)\prod _{n\in A}\cos (\pi \theta /n)\right). \]

Taking out real factors, this is \(2^{\left\lvert A\right\rvert }\prod _{n\in A}\cos (\pi \theta /n)\Re e(\theta R(A)/2)\), and the claim follows.

Lemma 4.16 ✓
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Let \(M\geq 1\) and \(A\) a finite set of naturals such that \(n\geq M\) for all \(n\in A\). Let \(K\) be a real such that \(K{\lt}M\). Let \(k\geq 1\) be an integer which divides \([A]\). Suppose that \(kR(A) \in [2-k/M,2)\).

\[ \sum _{h\in \mathfrak {M}(A,k,K)}\Re \left( \prod _{n\in A}(1+e(kh/n))\right) \geq 0. \]

Proof ▼

Since \(k\) divides \([A]\), we know that \(t[A]/k\) is an integer for any \(t\in \mathbb {Z}\), and hence by definition of \(\mathfrak {M}(t)\) we can write \(h=t[A]/k+r\), where \(r\) is an integer satisfying \(\left\lvert r\right\rvert \leq K/2k\). Therefore, letting

\[ J_t =[-K/2k,K/2k]\cap (J(A)-t[A]/k), \]

then

\[ \sum _{h\in \mathfrak {M}(t)}\Re \left( \prod _{n\in A}(1+e(kh/n))\right)=\sum _{r\in J_t}\Re \left( \prod _{n\in A}(1+e((t[A]+rk)/n))\right)=\sum _{r\in J_t}\Re \left( \prod _{n\in A}(1+e(rk/n))\right), \]

since \(t[A]/n\) is always an integer, by definition of \([A]\).

Using Lemma 4.15, this is

\[ 2^{[A]}\sum _{h\in \mathfrak {M}(t)}\cos (\pi krR(A))\prod _{n\in A}\cos (\pi kr/n). \]

Since \([A]\geq \min (A)\geq M{\gt}K\), the hypotheses of Lemma 4.14 are all met, and so \(\mathfrak {M}\) is the disjoint union of \(\mathfrak {M}(t)\) as \(t\) ranges over \(t\in \mathbb {Z}\). Therefore \(1_{h\in \mathfrak {M}}=\sum _t 1_{h\in \mathfrak {M}(t)}\), and therefore using the above and rearranging the sum,

\[ \sum _{h\in \mathfrak {M}(A,k,K)}\Re \left( \prod _{n\in A}(1+e(kh/n))\right) =\sum _{r\in [-K/2k,K/2k]\cap \mathbb {Z}}\left( \sum _{t\in \mathbb {Z}}1_{r\in J_t}\right)\cos (\pi krR(A))\prod _{n\in A}\cos (\pi kr/n). \]

Since for all \(n\in A\) we have \(n\geq M{\gt}K\) we have \(\left\lvert kr/n\right\rvert {\lt} 1/2\) for all \(r\) with \(\left\lvert r\right\rvert \leq K/2k\), and hence \(\cos (\pi kr/n)\geq 0\) for all such \(n\) and \(r\).

Furthermore, writing \(kR(A)=2-\epsilon \) for some \(0{\lt}\epsilon \leq k/M\), we have (since \(r\) is an integer)

\[ \cos (\pi kr R(A)) = \cos (-\pi r\epsilon )\geq 0, \]

since \(\left\lvert r\epsilon \right\rvert \leq K/2M{\lt}1/2\) for all \(\left\lvert r\right\rvert \leq K/2k\). It follows that

\[ \left( \sum _{t\in \mathbb {Z}}1_{r\in J_t}\right)\cos (\pi krR(A))\prod _{n\in A}\cos (\pi kr/n)\geq 0 \]

for all \(r\in [-K/2k,K/2k]\cap \mathbb {Z}\), and hence as the sum of non-negative summands the original sum is non-negative as required.

Lemma 4.17 ✓
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Let \(M\geq 1\) and \(A\) a finite set of naturals such that \(n\geq M\) for all \(n\in A\). Let \(K\) be a real such that \(K{\lt}M\). Let \(k\geq 1\) be an integer which divides \([A]\). Suppose that \(kR(A) \in [2-k/M,2)\), and there is no \(S\subset A\) such that \(R(S)=1/k\), and \([A]\leq 2^{\left\lvert A\right\rvert -1}\). Then

\[ \sum _{h\in J(A)\backslash \mathfrak {M}(A,k,K)} C(A;hk)\geq 1/2. \]

Proof ▼

By Lemma 4.13

\[ \sum _{h\in J(A)}\Re \left( \prod _{n\in A}(1+e(kh/n))\right)\leq -2^{\left\lvert A\right\rvert -1}. \]

By Lemma 4.16

\[ \sum _{h\in \mathfrak {M}(A,k,K)}\Re \left( \prod _{n\in A}(1+e(kh/n))\right) \geq 0. \]

Therefore

\[ \sum _{h\in J(A)\backslash \mathfrak {M}(A,k,K)}\Re \left( \prod _{n\in A}(1+e(kh/n))\right)\leq -2^{\left\lvert A\right\rvert -1}. \]

By the triangle inequality, using \(\left\lvert \Re z\right\rvert \leq \left\lvert z\right\rvert \) and \(\left\lvert 1+e(\theta )\right\rvert =2\cos (\pi \theta )\),

\[ \sum _{h\in J(A)\backslash \mathfrak {M}(A,k,K)}\left\lvert \cos (\pi kh/n)\right\rvert \geq 1/2 \]

as required.

Lemma 4.18 ✓
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For any finite set \(A\) such that \(n\leq N\) for all \(n\in A\), and integer \(t\), if \(t\equiv t_n\pmod{n}\) for \(\left\lvert t_n\right\rvert \leq n/2\) for all \(n\in A\), then

\[ C(A;t)\leq \exp \left( -\frac{2}{N^2}\sum _{n\in A}t_n^2\right). \]

Proof ▼

We first note that \(\left\lvert \cos (\pi t/n)\right\rvert =\left\lvert \cos (\pi t_n/n)\right\rvert \) for all \(n\in A\), by periodicity of cosine. By Lemma 4.9, therefore

\[ \left\lvert \cos (\pi t/n)\right\rvert \leq \exp (-2t_n^2/n^2)\leq \exp (-\tfrac {2}{N^2}t_n^2), \]

and the lemma follows taking the product over all \(n\in A\).

Lemma 4.19 ✓
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Suppose that \(N\) is sufficiently large and \(M\geq 8\). Let \(T{\gt}0\) be a real and \(k\geq 1\) be an integer. Let \(A\subset [M,N]\) be a set of integers such that if \(q\in \mathcal{Q}_A\) then \(q\leq \frac{TK^2}{N^2 \log N}\). Then

\[ \sum _{h\in \mathfrak {m}_1(A,k,K,T)} C(A;hk)\leq 1/8. \]

Proof ▼

We show in fact that for any \(h\in \mathfrak {m}_1(A,k,K,T)\) we have

\[ C(A;hk)\leq 1/[A]^2. \]

The result then immediately follows since \(\left\lvert \mathfrak {m}_1(A,k,K,T)\right\rvert \leq \left\lvert J(A)\right\rvert \leq [A]\), assuming \([A]\geq 8\), which is true since \([A]\geq \min (A)\geq M\geq 8\).

By Lemma 4.18,

\[ C(A;hk)\leq \exp \left( -\frac{2}{N^2}\sum _{n\in A}h_n^2\right), \]

where \(kh\equiv h_n\pmod{n}\) and \(\left\lvert h_n\right\rvert \leq n/2\). Let \(I_h\) be the interval of length \(K\) centred around \(kh\). If no element of \(I_h\) is divisible by \(n\) then \(\left\lvert h_n\right\rvert {\gt}K/2\). Therefore, by definition of \(\mathfrak {m}_1\), \(\left\lvert h_n\right\rvert {\gt}K/2\) for at least \(T\) many \(n\in A\), and hence \(\sum _{n\in A}h_n^2\geq K^2T/4\), and so

\[ C(A;h)\leq \exp \left( -\frac{K^2T}{2N^2}\right). \]

It remains to note that by Lemma 4.8

\[ [A]\leq \exp \left( O\left( \frac{K^2T}{N^2\log N}\right)\right)\leq \exp \left( \frac{K^2T}{4N^2}\right) \]

assuming \(N\) is sufficiently large.

Lemma 4.20 ✓
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Suppose that \(N\geq 4\). Let \(A\subset [1,N]\) be a finite set of integers and \(t\) an integer. Let \(K,L{\gt}0\) be reals and suppose that \(q\leq \tfrac {1}{16}LK^2/N^2(\log N)^2\) for all \(q\in \mathcal{Q}_A\). Let \(\mathcal{D}=\mathcal{D}_I(A;L)\) where \(I\) is the interval of length \(K\) centred at \(t\). Then

\[ C(A;t)\leq N^{-4\left\lvert \mathcal{Q}_A\backslash \mathcal{D}\right\rvert }. \]

Proof ▼

For any \(n\in A\), let \(\mathcal{Q}(n)\) denote all those \(q\in \mathcal{Q}\) such that \(n\in A_q\). Therefore, for any real \(x_n\geq 0\),

\[ \prod _{n\in A}x_n=\prod _{n\in A}\prod _{q\in \mathcal{Q}(n)}x_n^{1/\left\lvert \mathcal{Q}(n)\right\rvert } =\prod _{q\in \mathcal{Q}}\prod _{n\in A_q}x_n^{1/\left\lvert \mathcal{Q}(n)\right\rvert }. \]

By Lemma 4.10 for any \(n\in A\) we have \(\left\lvert \mathcal{Q}(n)\right\rvert \leq \tfrac {1}{\log 2}\log n\leq 2\log N\), and so if \(0\leq x_n\leq 1\),

\[ \prod _{n\in A}x_n\leq \prod _{q\in \mathcal{Q}}\prod _{n\in A_q}x_n^{1/2\log N}=\prod _{q\in \mathcal{Q}}\left( \prod _{n\in A_q}x_n\right)^{1/2\log N}. \]

In particular,

\[ C(A;t)\leq \prod _{q\in \mathcal{Q}}C(A_q;t)^{/2\log N}. \]

Using the trivial bound \(C(A_q;t)\leq 1\), to prove the lemma it therefore suffices to show that for every \(q\in \mathcal{Q}\backslash \mathcal{D}_h\) we have \(C(A_q;t)\leq N^{-8\log N}\).

For any \(n\in A\) let \(t\equiv t_n\pmod{n}\), where \(\left\lvert t_n\right\rvert \leq n/2\). For any \(q\in \mathcal{Q}\backslash \mathcal{D}\) there are, by definition of \(\mathcal{D}\), at least \(L/q\) many \(n\in A_q\) such that \(n\) divides no element of the interval of length \(K\) centred at \(t\).

Recall that \(t_n\) is the integer in \((-n/2,n/2]\) such that \(t\equiv t_n\pmod{n}\), so that \(n\) divides \(t-t_n\). If \(\left\lvert t_n\right\rvert \leq K/2\) then \(t-t_n\) is in the interval of length \(K\) centred at \(t\), which contradicts the previous paragraph. Therefore \(\left\lvert t_n\right\rvert {\gt}K/2\). Hence by Lemma 4.18

\[ C(A_q;t)\leq \exp \left( -\frac{2}{N^2}\cdot \frac{L}{q}\cdot \frac{K^2}{4}\right). \]

By assumption, \(q\leq LK^2/16N^2(\log N)^2\), and the proof is complete.

Lemma 4.21 ✓

Let \(N\) be a sufficiently large integer. Let \(K,L{\gt}0\) be reals such that \(0{\lt}K\leq N\). Let \(T{\gt}0\) be any real. Let \(k\) be an integer such that \(1\leq k \leq N/64\). Let \(A\subset [1,N]\) be a finite set of integers such that

  1. if \(q\in \mathcal{Q}_A\) then \(q\leq \tfrac {1}{16}\frac{LK^2}{N^2(\log N)^2}\), and

  2. for any interval \(I\) of length \(K\), either

    1. \[ \# \{ n\in A : \textrm{no element of }I\textrm{ is divisible by }n\} \geq T, \]

      or

    2. there is some \(x\in I\) divisible by all \(q\in \mathcal{D}_I(A;L)\).

Then

\[ \sum _{h\in \mathfrak {m}_2(A,k,K,T)}C(A;hk)\leq 1/8. \]

Proof ▼

For any \(h\in \mathfrak {m}_2\), let \(I_h\) be the interval of length \(K\) centred at \(kh\). Since \(h\not\in \mathfrak {m}_1\), condition 2(a) cannot hold, and therefore there is some \(x\in I_h\) divisible by all \(q\in \mathcal{D}_{I_h}(A;L)\). In particular, \(kh\) is distance at most \(K/2\) from some multiple of \([\mathcal{D}_{I_h}(A;L)]\). Since \(h\in \mathfrak {m}(A,k,K,T)\), we know \(h\not\in \mathfrak {M}(A,k,K)\), and hence \(kh\) is distance greater than \(K/2\) from any multiple of \([A]\). Since \([\mathcal{Q}]=[A]\), it follows that \(\mathcal{D}_{I_h}(A;L)\neq \mathcal{Q}\).

Furthermore, for any \(\mathcal{D}\subset \mathcal{Q}\), the number of \(h\in \mathfrak {m}_2\) with \(\mathcal{D}_{I_h}(A;L)=\mathcal{D}\) is at most \(K\) times the number of multiples of \([\mathcal{D}]\) in \([1,k[A]+K]\). The number of multiples of \([\mathcal{D}]\) in \([1,k[A]+K]\) is at most \((k[A]/[\mathcal{D}])+K\), and hence the number of \(h\in \mathfrak {m}_2\) with \(\mathcal{D}_{I_h}(A;L)=\mathcal{D}\) is at most

\[ Kk\frac{[A]}{[\mathcal{D}]} +K^2\leq Kk\prod _{q\in \mathcal{Q}\backslash \mathcal{D}}q+K^2\leq kN^{\left\lvert \mathcal{Q}\backslash \mathcal{D}\right\rvert +1}+K^2. \]

In particular, when \(\mathcal{D}\neq \mathcal{Q}\), the right-hand side is at most \(2kN^{\left\lvert \mathcal{Q}\backslash \mathcal{D}\right\rvert +1}\), that is,

\[ \sum _{h\in \mathfrak {m}_2}1_{\mathcal{D}_{I_h}(A;L)=\mathcal{D}}\leq 2kN^{\left\lvert \mathcal{Q}\backslash \mathcal{D}\right\rvert +1}. \]

(Here we have used the fact that \([A]\leq [D]\prod _{q\in \mathcal{Q}\backslash \mathcal{D}}q\), which is true because every prime power dividing \([A]\) is in \(\mathcal{Q}\), and hence either divides \([D]\) or divides \(\prod _{q\in \mathcal{Q}\backslash \mathcal{D}}q\).)

Therefore, for any \(\mathcal{D}\subset \mathcal{Q}\), using Lemma 4.20,

\[ \sum _{h\in \mathfrak {m}_2}1_{\mathcal{D}_{I_h}(A;L)=\mathcal{D}}C(A;hk)\leq 2kN^{1-3\left\lvert \mathcal{Q}_A\backslash \mathcal{D}\right\rvert }. \]

Since \(\mathcal{D}\neq \mathcal{Q}\), this is at most \(2kN^{-1-\left\lvert \mathcal{Q}\backslash \mathcal{D}\right\rvert }\).

Therefore (using the trivial estimate \(\left\lvert \mathcal{Q}\right\rvert \leq N\))

\begin{align*} \sum _{h\in \mathfrak {m}_2}C(A;h,k) & \leq \frac{2k}{N}\sum _{\mathcal{D}\subseteq \mathcal{Q}}N^{-\left\lvert \mathcal{Q}\backslash \mathcal{D}\right\rvert }\\ & = \frac{2k}{N}(1+1/N)^{\left\lvert \mathcal{Q}\right\rvert }\\ & \leq 8k/N \leq 1/8. \end{align*}

Proposition 4.22 ✓
#

There exists a constant \(c{\gt}0\) such that the following holds. Suppose that \(N\) is sufficiently large. Let \(K,L,M,T\) be reals such that \(T,L{\gt}0\) and \(8\leq K{\lt}M\leq N\), and let \(k\) be an integer such that \(1\leq k\leq M/64\). Let \(A\subset [M,N]\) be a set of integers such that

  1. \(R(A)\in [2/k-1/M,2/k)\),

  2. \(k\) divides \([A]\),

  3. if \(q\in \mathcal{Q}_A\) then \(q\leq c\min \left( M/k,\frac{LK^2}{N^2(\log N)^2},\frac{TK^2}{N^2\log N}\right)\), and

  4. for any interval \(I\) of length \(K\), either

    1. \[ \# \{ n\in A : \textrm{no element of }I\textrm{ is divisible by }n\} \geq T, \]

      or

    2. there is some \(x\in I\) divisible by all \(q\in \mathcal{D}_I(A; L)\).

There is some \(S\subset A\) such that \(R(S)=1/k\).

Proof ▼

If the conclusion fails, there is an immediate contradiction by combining Lemmas 4.17, 4.19 and 4.21. The only hypothesis that is not immediate to check is the upper bound \([A]{\lt}2^{\left\lvert A\right\rvert -1}\). This follows since \(\lvert A\rvert \geq MR(A)\geq \frac{2}{k}M-1\geq M/k\), and by Lemma 4.8 we have \([A]\leq e^{O(cM/k)}\), which is at most \(2^{\left\lvert A\right\rvert /2}\) assuming \(c\) is sufficiently small.