Sums of divisors of the ternary quadratic with almost equal variables (Q2347041)

The aim of this article is to study sums of the form \[ S(x,\,y)=\sum_{|m_i-x|\leq y}d(m_1^2+m_2^2+m_3^2)\,, \] where \(d(n)\) is the sum of divisors of \(n\), \(y = x^{\theta}\) with \(0 < \theta \leq 1\). The authors establish that \[ S(x,\,y)=K_1L_1(x,\,y)+2(\gamma K_1-K_2)L_2(x,\,y)+O(R), \] where \(K_1,\,K_2\) are constants with exact values, \[ L_j(x,\,y)=\frac{1}{8}\sum_{3(x-y)^2<n\leq 3(x+y)^2}(\log n)^{2-j} \sum_{3(x-y)^2<m_i\leq 3(x+y)^2\atop{m_1+m_2+m_3=n}}\frac{1}{\sqrt{m_1m_2m_3}}\,, \] \(L_1(x,\,y)\asymp y^3\log y\), \(L_2(x,\,y)\asymp y^3\), \(R=y^{3-\varepsilon}\) if \(\theta=\frac{1}{2}+2\varepsilon\) and \(R=y^{3/8}x^{\varepsilon}\) if \(\theta=\frac{6}{7}+\varepsilon\). For the proofs of these statements the authors used the circle method. The estimate of the sum of the divisors over the arithmetic progression in [\textit{D. R. Heath-Brown}, Proc. Lond. Math. Soc. (3) 38, 385--422 (1979; Zbl 0403.10018)] is applied to the integrals over major arcs. The integrals over minor arcs are treated in a similar way to the one in Section 8 of [\textit{R. Guo} and \textit{W. Zhai}, Acta Arith. 156, No. 2, 101--121 (2012; Zbl 1270.11099)]. The results in the article extend those of [\textit{C. Calderón} and \textit{M. J. de Velasco}, Bol. Soc. Bras. Mat., Nova Sér. 31, No. 1, 81--91 (2000; Zbl 1031.11057)] and [Guo and Zhai, loc. cit.].