Our main result is that there are infinitely many primes of the form a² + b² such that a² + 4b² has at most 5 prime factors. We prove this by first developing the theory of $L$-functions for Gaussian primes by using standard methods. We then give an exposition of the Siegel--Walfisz Theorem for Gaussian primes and a corresponding Prime Number Theorem for Gaussian Arithmetic Progressions. Finally, we prove the main result by using the developed theory together with Sieve Theory and specifically a weighted linear sieve result to bound the number of prime factors of a² + 4b². For the application of the sieve, we need to derive a specific version of the Bombieri--Vinogradov Theorem for Gaussian primes which, in turn, requires a suitable version of the Large Sieve. We are also able to get the number of prime factors of a² + 4b² as low as 3 if we assume the Generalised Riemann Hypothesis.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:540255 |
| Date | January 2010 |
| Creators | Schlackow, Waldemar |
| Contributors | Heath-Brown, Roger |
| Publisher | University of Oxford |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Source | http://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:b7d4ff88-1f93-41b4-9f81-055f8f1b1c51 |
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