Dirichlet’s Theorem on the infinitude of primes in arithmetic progressions relies on the non-vanishing of non-trivial Dirichlet characters at 1.
In this post, I’ll show how this reduction can be introduced in an intuitive way via sieve theory. If we actually sieve, we obtain estimates for the number of integers whose prime factors lie in given congruence classes.
The Gauss Circle Problem is a classic open problem in number theory concerning the number of lattice points contained in a large circle.
Optimal error bounds are known in these approximations in a generalization of the Gauss Circle Problem to spheres in dimensions four and above.
In this post, I’ll give a purely analytic proof of this result for even dimensions greater than four, and explain why the method fails in the other cases.
Classification theorems of Euler, Lagrange, and Legendre describe the sets of integers that can be written as the sum of 2, 3, and 4 squares. In the last two cases, it follows easily that the density of these sets are 5/6 and 1.
The question of density is not so simple in the case of two squares. In this post, we resolve using an unexpected tool — Dirichlet’s theorem on primes in arithmetic progressions.
a. w. walker 