Divisor problems and exponent pairs (Q1089378)

Let \(G_{a,k}(x)\sum _{n\leq \sqrt{x}}n^ a B_ k(\{x/n\})\), where \(B_ k\) denotes the k-th Bernoulli polynomial. In the cases where the Chowla-Walum conjecture remains unsettled, this paper provides O- estimates for the \(G_{a,k}(x)\), expressed in terms of the lower boundary of the set of exponent pairs obtainable from the theory of van der Corput and Phillips and described by Rankin. As error terms arising from the asymptotic expressions for the summatory functions of various divisor functions can be expressed in terms of some of the \(G_{a,k}(x)\), this in turn yields O-estimates for such error terms. A typical example is \(E_ a(x)\), the error term related to \(\sigma _ a\) \((0\neq | a| <1)\), for which estimates due to Berger (1887) and Cramér (1922) are improved on. With the help of a new exponent pair recently discovered by \textit{M. N. Huxley} and \textit{N. Watt} [J. Lond. Math. Soc., II. Ser. (to appear)] the results of this paper can be improved further; this is done in Proc. Conf. Prospects Math. Sci., Tokyo 1986, Singapore (in press).