PRIME NUMBERS IN LOGARITHMIC INTERVALS

Let X be a large parameter. We will first give a new estimate for the integral moments of primes in short intervals of the type (p, p + h], where p <= X is a prime number and h = o(X). Then we will apply this to prove that for every lambda > 1/2 there exists a positive proportion of primes p <= X such that the interval (p, p + lambda log X] contains at least a prime number. As a consequence we improve Cheer and Goldston's result on the size of real numbers lambda > 1 with the property that there is a positive proportion of integers m <= X such that the interval (m, m + lambda log X] contains no primes. We also prove other results concerning the moments of the gaps between consecutive primes and about the positive proportion of integers m <= X such that the interval (m, m + lambda log X] contains at least a prime number. The last applications of these techniques are two theorems (the first one unconditional and the second one in which we assume the validity of the Riemann Hypothesis and of a form of the Montgomery pair correlation conjecture) on the positive proportion of primes p <= X such that the interval (p, p + lambda log X] contains no primes.