On Primes $p$ such that $p-b$ Has a Large Power Factor and Few Other Divisors

Likun Xie

Published 2024-10-18Version 1

We establish quantitative lower bounds for the number of primes $p$ such that, for an odd integer $b$, $p - b \leq N$ and $p - b = 2^{k(N) + m} P_k \quad \text{for some } m \geq 0$, where $P_k$ is a product of at most $k$ primes other than 2, for $k \geq 2$. These results hold under various upper bounds for $2^{k(N)}$ depending on $k $, specifically when $2^{k(N)} \leq N^a$ for different values of $a$. Our approach combines techniques from Chen's theorem, weighted sieves, and Selberg's lower bound sieve, as well as results on primes in arithmetic progressions with large power factor moduli.