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This is the paper I am referring to.

At the bottom of page 4, we see:

$$\log \zeta(s) = - \sum \log(1 - p^{-s}) = \sum p^{-s} + \frac{1}{2}\sum p^{-2s} + \frac{1}{3}\sum p^{-3s} + ... $$

Now, we replace

$$p^{-s} = s\int_p^\infty x^{-s-1} dx\text{ and }p^{-2s} = s\int_{p^2}^\infty x^{-s-1} dx\text{ and so on}$$

How we jump to the next step is what I do not understand.

$$\frac{\log \zeta(s)}{s} = \int_1^\infty f(x) x^{-s-1}dx$$

where:

$$f(x) = \pi(x) + \frac{1}{2}\pi(x^{\frac{1}{2}}) + \frac{1}{3}\pi(x^{\frac{1}{3}}) + ...$$

Here I use $\pi(x)$ instead of Riemann's $F(x)$.

If I were to rewrite for clarity:

$$\log \zeta(s) = -\sum \log(1 - p^{-s}) = \sum p^{-s} + \frac{1}{2}\sum p^{-2s} + \frac{1}{3}\sum p^{-3s} + ... $$

$$\frac{\log \zeta(s)}{s} = \sum\int_p^\infty x^{-s-1} dx + \frac{1}{2}\sum\int_{p^2}^\infty x^{-s-1} dx + \frac{1}{3}\sum\int_{p^3}^\infty x^{-s-1} dx + ... $$

Now, somehow, we are saying:

$$\sum\int_p^\infty x^{-s-1} dx = \int_1^\infty \pi(x) x^{-s-1}dx\text{ ---Eqn(1)}$$

$$\frac{1}{2}\sum\int_{p^2}^\infty x^{-s-1} dx = \frac{1}{2}\int_1^\infty \pi(x^\frac{1}{2}) x^{-s-1}dx\text{ ---Eqn(2)}$$

and so on

What is the basis for this? How did the sum over all primes $p$ of an integral change to just an integral and somehow the sum got absorbed into $\pi(x)$? Also, more interestingly, on one side we have sum over all primes and on RHS we have number of primes less than $x$.

Thank you

JC12
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sku
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    $\int_{p_n}^{p_{n+1}}\pi(x)f(x)dx=n\int_{p_n}^{p_{n+1}}f(x)dx$ so RHS in equation $(1)$ is $\sum n\int_{p_n}^{p_{n+1}}f(x)dx$ where $p_0=1, p_1=2,...p_n=$ nth prime, while the LHS has $\int_{p_n}^{p_{n+1}}f(x)dx$ precisely for how many primes $p \le p_n$ are there, which is $n$ by definition, so LHS=RHS for all functions $f(x)$ for which the integral on the RHS converges; the rest of the equations are obtained by similar counting – Conrad Jul 13 '20 at 01:15
  • @conrad Thank you – sku Jul 13 '20 at 02:06
  • happy to be of help – Conrad Jul 13 '20 at 02:08

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