[Math] n’t this prove the prime number theorem

analytic-number-theoryasymptoticsnumber theory

Someone deduced without using complex analysis that

$$ \int \frac{\pi(t)}{t^2} \mathrm{d}t \sim \log\log t $$
where $\pi$ is the prime counting function.

By differentiating the above, he then arrives at

$$\frac{\pi(t)}{t^2} \sim \frac{1}{t\log t} $$ which is exactly the Prime Number Theorem.

However, he feels that something should be wrong with this approach, but not sure exactly what ?

Best Answer

The reasoning is flawed because $f\sim g$ most certainly does NOT imply $f’\sim g’$.

For example, take $f(x)\equiv 0$ and $g(x)= \frac1N \sin N^2x$.

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