arXiv subjects
Publications and source records attributed to Sam Porritt.
We investigate the distribution of the function $\omega(n)$, the number of distinct prime divisors of $n$, in residue classes modulo $q$ for natural numbers $q$ greater than 2. In particular we ask `prime number races' style questions, as suggested by Coons and Dahmen in their paper `On the residue class distribution of the number of prime divisors of an integer'.
In 1991, Baker and Harman proved, under the assumption of the generalized Riemann hypothesis, that $\max_{ \theta \in [0,1) }\left|\sum_{ n \leq x } \mu(n) e(n \theta) \right| \ll_\epsilon x^{3/4 + \epsilon}$. The purpose of this note is to deduce an analogous bound in the context of polynomials over a finite field using Weil's Riemann Hypothesis for curves over a finite field. Our approach is based on the work of Hayes who studied exponential sums over irreducible polynomials.
We prove a function field analogue of Maynard's result about primes with restricted digits. That is, for certain ranges of parameters n and q, we prove an asymptotic formula for the number of irreducible polynomials of degree n over a finite field F_q whose coefficients are restriced to lie in a given subset of F_q.
We use a function field analogue of a method of Selberg to derive an asymptotic formula for the number of (square-free) monic polynomials in $\mathbb{F}_q[X]$ of degree $n$ with precisely $k$ irreducible factors, in the limit as $n$ tends to infinity. We then adapt this method to count such polynomials in arithmetic progressions and short intervals, and by making use of Weil's `Riemann hypothesis' for curves over $\mathbb{F}_q$, obtain better ranges for these formulae than are currently known for their analogues in the number field setting. Finally, we briefly discuss the regime in which $q$ tends to infinity.