The Weyl bound for Dirichlet \(L\)-functions of cube-free conductor (Q2206344)

A central problem in analytic number theory is to find bounds on the growth of Dirichlet \(L\)-functions on the critical line. A classical result is the so called \emph{convexity bound} for the Riemann zeta function \(\zeta(1/2+it)\ll (1+|t|)^{\frac14+\varepsilon}\) for every \(\varepsilon>0\). Ideas of Hermann Weyl have led to the \emph{Weyl bound} \(\zeta(1/2+it)\ll (1+|t|)^{\frac16+\varepsilon}\). In the case of Dirichlet \(L\)-functions \(L(s,\chi)\), the conductor \(q\) of the Dirichlet character \(\chi\) is of higher significance than the imaginary part of the argument \(s\). A breakthrough was reached by \textit{J. B. Conrey} and \textit{H. Iwaniec} [Ann. Math. (2) 151, No. 3, 1175--1216 (2000; Zbl 0973.11056)], where they proved that \(L(1/2+it,\chi)\ll (1+|t|)^A\ q^{\frac16+\varepsilon}\) for some \(A>0\) and all \(\varepsilon>0\), which is valid for for all quadratic characters \(\chi\). In the present paper it is shown that \[ L\left(1/2+it,\chi\right)\ \ll_\varepsilon\ (1+|t|)^{\frac16+\varepsilon}\ q^{\frac16+\varepsilon} \] holds for all Dirichlet characters \(\chi\) of cube-free conductor \(q\). As in the work of Conrey and Iwaniec [loc. cit.], the authors first apply some standard tools: approximate functional equations, the Petersson/Kuznetsov formula and Poisson summation. The dual sum after Poisson summation then boils down to a certain character sum defined by \[ g(\chi,\psi)=\sum_{t,u\mod q}\chi(t)\overline\chi(t+1)\overline\chi(u)\chi(u+1)\psi(ut-1), \] where \(\psi\) is a Dirichlet character modulo \(q\). The problem then reduces to bounding \[ \sum_{\psi\mod q}\left|L\left(1/2,\psi\right)\right|^4g(\chi,\psi). \] The fourth moment of Dirichlet \(L\)-functions is of size \(O(q^{1+\varepsilon})\), so this sum can be bounded by \(O(q^{1+\varepsilon})\) times the maximum value of \(|g(\chi,\psi)|\). For \(q\) prime, the Riemann hypothesis of Deligne plays a crucial role, for \(q\) the square of a prime, the estimate can be established by elementary means, but if \(q\) contains a cube, theses arguments no longer hold.