Refinement of the Chowla-Erdős method and linear independence of certain Lambert series (Q2279823)

In this paper, the authors refine the method of Chowla and Erdős on the irrationality of Lambert series and they study a necessary condition for the infinite series \(\sum\frac{\theta(n)}{q^n}\) to be a rational number, where \(q\) is an integer with \(|q|>1\) and \(\theta\) is an arithmetic function with suitable divisibility and growth conditions. As applications of the main theorem, the authors give for instance the following linear independence results. Let \(d(n)\) be the divisor function and let \(\{a_n\}_{n\ge1}\) be a sequence of nonzero integers satisfying \(\log|a_n|=O(\log\log n)\). Then for every integer \(h\ge1\) the numbers \[ 1,\quad \sum_{n=1}^\infty \frac{\theta(n)}{q^n},\quad \sum_{n=1}^\infty \frac{\theta(n)}{q^{2n}},\quad\dots,\quad \sum_{n=1}^\infty \frac{\theta(n)}{q^{hn}} \] are linearly independent over \(\mathbb Q\). Similarly, if \(\mu(n)\) is the Möbius function then for every integer \(h\ge1\) the numbers \[ 1,\quad \sum_{n=1}^\infty \frac{|\mu(n)|}{2^n-1},\quad \sum_{n=1}^\infty \frac{|\mu(n)|}{2^{2n}-1},\quad\dots,\quad \sum_{n=1}^\infty \frac{|\mu(n)|}{2^{hn}-1} \] are linearly independent over \(\mathbb Q\).