On the average distribution of primes represented by binary quadratic forms

Abstract

We investigate the average distribution of primes represented by positive definite integral binary quadratic forms, the average being taken over negative fundamental discriminants in long ranges. In particular, we prove corresponding results of Bombieri-Vinogradov type and of Barban-Davenport-Halberstam type, although with shorter ranges than in the original theorems for primes in arithmetic progressions: The results imply that, for all $a>0$, the least prime that can be represented by any given positive definite binary quadratic form of discriminant $q$ is smaller than $|q|^{7+a}$ for all forms to "most" discriminants; moreover, it is even smaller than $|q|^{3+a}$ for "most" forms to "most" discriminants.