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I'm working on understanding Nagura's analysis of the upper bound for $\psi(x)$ which is done in Lemma 2. I am unclear on one step of his reasoning.

With Lemma 1, he establishes for $x \ge 2000$:

$$\log\Gamma(\lfloor{x}\rfloor+1) - \log\Gamma(\lfloor{\frac{x}{2}}\rfloor+1) - \log\Gamma(\lfloor{\frac{x}{3}}\rfloor+1)- \log\Gamma(\lfloor{\frac{x}{7}}\rfloor+1) - \log\Gamma(\lfloor{\frac{x}{43}}\rfloor+1) - \log\Gamma(\lfloor{\frac{x}{1806}}\rfloor+1) < 1.0851x$$

With Lemma 2, he shows that for $x > 0$:

$$\log\Gamma(\lfloor{x}\rfloor+1) - \log\Gamma(\lfloor{\frac{x}{2}}\rfloor+1) - \log\Gamma(\lfloor{\frac{x}{3}}\rfloor+1)- \log\Gamma(\lfloor{\frac{x}{7}}\rfloor+1) - \log\Gamma(\lfloor{\frac{x}{43}}\rfloor+1) - \log\Gamma(\lfloor{\frac{x}{1806}}\rfloor+1) \ge \psi(x) -\psi(\frac{x}{1806})$$

Now, it's the next step that confuses me. Based on these two steps, Nagura makes the following argument:

$$\psi(x) < 1.0851(x + \frac{x}{1806} + \frac{x}{1806^2} + \frac{x}{1806^3} + \ldots ) < 1.086x$$

I am having trouble understanding this step.

Does it follow since he has established this step:

$$\psi(x) < 1.0851x + \psi(\frac{x}{1806})$$

And is trying to generalize to a statement of the form:

$$\psi(x) < Kx$$

Thanks,

-Larry

Glorfindel
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Larry Freeman
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1 Answers1

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A second application of the inequality $$\psi(x) <1.0851x+\psi\left(\frac{x}{1806}\right)$$ gives $$\psi(x) < 1.0851x\left(1+\frac{1}{1806}\right)+\psi\left(\frac{x}{1806^2}\right)$$ In general, induction gives $$\psi(x) < 1.0851x \left(1+\frac{1}{1806} + \frac{1}{1806^2} + \ldots + \frac{1}{1806^k}\right)+\psi \left( \frac{x}{1806^{k+1}}\right).$$ For $k$ sufficiently large, we have $1806^{k+1} > x$, at which point the $\psi$-term is $0$, which gives the bound $$\psi(x) < 1.0851x\sum_{j=0}^\infty \frac{1}{1806^j}.$$

Historical note: this technique was first used by Chebyshev, who showed $$0.9212x< \psi(x) < 1.1056x$$ for large $x$ to prove Bertrand's postulate (as well as give the correct growth order of $\pi(x)$). Nagura uses a different approximation function of $\log \mathrm{lcm}(1,\ldots,n)$, and thus achieves different constants. I wrote an article that includes general constructions of this form, as well as historical notes; it can be found here.

awwalker
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