On sums of two coprime cubes (Q2341938)

Consider the asymptotic formula (where \(c\) is a suitable constant, \(\theta\) is a positive constant to be made as small as possible and \(\varepsilon\) is any positive constant) \[ \sum_{| m| ^3+| n| ^3\leq x, (m,n)=1} 1 = cx^{2/3} +O(x^{\theta+\varepsilon}). \] Under the Riemann Hypothesis, the author obtains \(\theta= 7/27 = 0.25925 \dots\). This is a small improvement on the previous record by \textit{R. C. Baker} [Acta Arith. 129, No. 2, 103--146 (2007; Zbl 1136.11065)] who gave \(\theta = 0.25990\ldots\). The improvement comes about by developing estimates for certain double exponential sums. This allows the author to avoid the exponent pairs used by Baker and so avoid some extra restrictions which arose there. The author conjectures that this may have squeezed as much as possible from the current methods since both parts of the remainder term that arise in the calculations are restricted in exactly the same way.