On the distribution of modular square roots of primes

We extend the geometric interpretation of the roots of the quadratic congruence $\mu^2 \equiv D \pmod m$ as the tops of certain geodesics in the hyperbolic plane to the case when $D$ is square-free and $D\equiv 1\pmod 4$. This allows us to establish limit laws for the fine-scale statistics of the roots using results by Marklof and the second author.

We estimate the deviation of the number of solutions of the congruence $$ m^2-n^2 \equiv c \pmod q, \qquad 1 \le m \le M, \ 1\le n \le N, $$ from its expected value on average over $c=1, ..., q$. This estimate is motivated by the recently established by D. R. Heath-Brown connection between the distibution of solution to this congruence and the pair correlation problem for the fractional parts of the quadratic function $\alpha k^2$, $k=1,2,...$ with a real $\alpha$.

We obtain function field analogues of recent energy bounds on modular square roots and modular inversions and apply them to bounding some bilinear sums and to some questions regarding smooth and square-free polynomials in residue classes.

We prove that suitable asymptotic formulae in short intervals hold for the problems of representing an integer as a sum of a prime square and a square, or a prime square. Such results are obtained both assuming the Riemann Hypothesis and in the unconditional case.

The classical Brun--Titchmarsh theorem gives an upper bound, which is of correct order of magnitude in the full range, for the number of primes $p\leqslant x$ satisfying $p\equiv a\bmod q$. We strength this inequality for $\log q/\log x$ in different ranges, improving upon previous works by Motohashi, Goldfeld, Iwaniec, Friedlander and Iwaniec, and Maynard for general or special moduli. In particular, we obtain a Burgess-like constant in the full range $q<x^{1/2-}.$ The proof...

The author has previously extended the theory of regular and irregular primes to the setting of arbitrary totally real number fields. It has been conjectured that the Bernoulli numbers, or alternatively the values of the Riemann zeta function at odd negative integers, are evenly distributed modulo p for every p. This is the basis of a well-known heuristic, given by Siegel, for estimating the frequency of irregular primes. So far, analyses have shown that if Q(\sqrt{D}) is a r...

This paper deals with function field analogues of the famous theorem of Landau which gives the asymptotic density of sums of two squares in $\mathbb{Z}$. We define the analogue of a sum of two squares in $\mathbb{F}_q[T]$ and estimate the number $B_q(n)$ of such polynomials of degree $n$ in two cases. The first case is when $q$ is large and $n$ fixed and the second case is when $n$ is large and $q$ is fixed. Although the methods used and main terms computed in each of the t...

We prove an asymptotic formula for the number of primes of the shape $a^2 +p^4$, thereby refining the well known work of Friedlander and Iwaniec. Along the way, we prove a result on equidistribution of primes up to $x$, in which the moduli may be almost as large as $x^2$.

This note investigates the average density of prime numbers $p\in[x,2x]$ with respect to a random simultaneous primitive root $g\leq p^{1/2+\varepsilon}$ over the finite rings $\mathbb{Z}/p\mathbb{Z}$ and $\mathbb{Z}/p^2\mathbb{Z}$ as $x \to \infty$.

Consider the number of integers in a short interval that can be represented as a sum of two squares. What is an estimate for the variance of these counts over random short intervals? We resolve a function field variant of this problem in the large $q$ limit, finding a connection to the $z$-measures first investigated in the context of harmonic analysis on the infinite symmetric group. A similar connection to $z$-measures is established for sums over short intervals of the div...