Exponential sums with multiplicative coefficients without the Ramanujan conjecture (Q2225624)

In [Invent. Math. 43, 69--82 (1977; Zbl 0362.10036)], \textit{H. L. Montgomery} and \textit{R. C. Vaughan} proved that, uniformly for all complex-valued multiplicative functions \(f\) satisfying \(|f(p)| \leqslant A\) for all primes \(p\) and \(\sum_{n \leqslant N} |f(n)|^2 \leqslant A^2 N\) for all \(N \in \mathbb{Z}_{\geqslant 1}\), we have \[\sum_{n \leqslant N} f(n) \, e(n \alpha)\ll \frac{N}{\log N} + \frac{N}{R^{1/2}}(\log R)^{3/2}\] provided that \(\left| \alpha-\frac{s}{r} \right| \leqslant \frac{1}{r^2}\) for some coprime integers \(r\) and \(s\) such that \(3 \leqslant R \leqslant r \leqslant \frac{N}{R}\). In the paper under review, the authors prove a similar estimate for an extended class of multiplicative functions. More precisely, let \(f\) be a complex-valued multiplicative function satisfying the three conditions \(\sum_{n \leqslant N} |f(n)|^2 \ll N\), \(\sum_{p \leqslant N} |f(p)|^2 \log p \ll N\) and \[\sum_{\substack{p \leqslant N \\ p+h \, \text{prime}}} \left| f(p) f(p+h) \right| \ll \frac{h}{\varphi(h)} \frac{N}{(\log N)^2}.\] Then \[\sum_{n \leqslant N} f(n) \, e(n \alpha)\ll \frac{N}{\log N} + \frac{N}{\varphi(q)^{1/2}}+ (qN)^{1/2}(\log N/q)^{3/2}\] provided that \(\alpha = a/q + \theta/q^2\) for some \(|\theta| \leqslant 1\), \(1 \leqslant q \leqslant N\) and \((a,q)=1\). Since this bound do not need the validity of the Ramanujan conjecture, which is to date out of reach, the authors can apply their result to \(f(n) = \lambda_\pi(n)\), the \(n\)th Dirichlet coefficient of an automorphic \(L\)-function attached to an irreducible cuspidal representation \(\pi\) of \(\textrm{GL}_m\) with \(m \geqslant 4\) over \(\mathbb{Q}\) with unitary central character, and prove that there exist cancellations among the sequence \(\left( \lambda_\pi(n) e(n \alpha) \right)_{n \geqslant 1}\), meaning \[\sum_{n \leqslant N} \lambda_\pi(n) \, e(n \alpha) = o \left( \sum_{n \leqslant N} \left| \lambda_\pi(n) \right| \right) \] as \(N \to \infty\).