Multiplicative functions in short intervals (Q291027)

In the paper under review, the authors relate short averages of the multiplicative function \(f:\mathbb{N}\to[-1,1]\) to its long averages, by proving that there exists absolute constants \(C,C'>1\) such that for any \(2\leq h\leq X\) and \(\delta>0\), one has \[ \left|\frac{1}{h}\sum_{x\leq n\leq x+h}f(n)-\frac{1}{X}\sum_{X\leq n\leq 2X}f(n) \right|\leq\delta+C'\frac{\log\log h}{\log h} \] for all but at most \[ CX\left(\frac{\log^{\frac{1}{3}}h}{\delta^2 h^{\frac{\delta}{25}}}+\frac{1}{\delta^2\log^{\frac{1}{50}}X}\right) \] integers \(x\in[X,2X]\). Moreover, as a bilinear version of this result holding in all intervals of length \(\asymp\sqrt{x}\), they show that for any \(10\leq h\leq x\) one has \[ \begin{aligned} & \frac{1}{h\sqrt{x}\log 2}\sum_{\overset {x\leq n_1n_2\leq x+h\sqrt{x}}{\sqrt{x}\leq n_1\leq 2\sqrt{x}}}f(n_1)f(n_2)\\ &=\left(\frac{1}{\sqrt{x}}\sum_{\sqrt{x}\leq n\leq 2\sqrt{x}}f(n)\right)^2+O\left(\frac{\log\log h}{\log h}+\frac{1}{\log^{\frac{1}{100}}x}\right).\end{aligned} \] The authors use the above results to study \(x^\varepsilon\)-smooth numbers by proving that for given \(\varepsilon>0\) there exists constant \(C(\varepsilon)>0\) such that the number of \(x^\varepsilon\)-smooth numbers in the interval \([x,x+C(\varepsilon)\sqrt{x}]\) is at least \(\sqrt{x}\log^{-4}x\) for all large enough \(x\). As another application, they consider Chowla's conjecture on the Liouville's function \(\lambda(n)=(-1)^{\Omega(n)}\) asserting that \(x^{-1}\sum_{n\leq x}\lambda(n)\lambda(n+1)=o(1)\) as \(x\to\infty\), and prove that for every integer \(h\geq 1\) there exists \(\delta(h)>0\) such that \[ \frac{1}{x}\left|\sum_{n\leq x}\lambda(n)\lambda(n+h)\right|\leq 1-\delta(h) \] for all large enough \(x>1\). The authors mention that same result holds for any completely multiplicative function \(f:\mathbb N\to[-1,1]\) with \(f(n)<0\) for some \(n>0\), and they consider the problem of counting sign changes of \(f(n)\).