Almost primes in almost all short intervals II

Abstract

We show that, for almost all $x$, the interval $(x,x+(\log x{)}^{2.1}]$ contains products of exactly two primes. This improves on a work of the second author that had $3.51$ in place of $2.1$. To obtain this improvement, we prove a new type II estimate. One of the new innovations is to use Heath-Brown's mean value theorem for sparse Dirichlet polynomials.

26 pages; referee comments incorporated; to appear in Trans. Am. Math. Soc

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