Ergodic properties of square-free numbers (Q2375900)

Let \(0 \leq k_1 \dots < k_r\) be integers, and define \[ \mathcal{Q}_N (k_1, \dots, k_r) = \left\{ n \leq N: \, \text{all the numbers \(n, n+k_1, \dots, n+k_r\) are square-free} \right\}. \] Thus \(\mathcal{Q}_N (k_1, \dots, k_r)\) measures the correlation of square-free numbers. It is known that the limits \[ c_{r+1}(k_1, \dots, k_r) = \lim_{N \to \infty} \frac{|\mathcal{Q}_N (k_1, \dots, k_r)|}{N} \] exists. Let \(X\) denote the space of all bi-infinite sequences \(\{x(n), n\in\mathbb Z \}\), where \(x(n) \in \{0,1\}\) for all \(n\). Let \(\mathcal{B}\) denote the sigma-field generated by cylinder sets, and let \(\Pi\) be the probability measure which has the property that for every \(r \geq 1\) and \(-\infty < k_0 < k_1 < \dots < k_r < \infty\), \[ \Pi \{x \in X: x(k_0) = x(k_1) = \dots = x(k_r) = 1\} = c_{r+1}(k_1, \dots, k_r). \] The authors call this measure the \textit{natural measure corresponding to the set of square-free numbers}. If \(T\) is the shift on \(X\), then \(\Pi\) is invariant under \(T\). The main results of the present paper are the following: {\parindent=6mm \begin{itemize} \item[-] The dynamical system \((X, \mathcal{B}, \Pi,T)\) is ergodic and has pure point spectrum given by \[ \Lambda = \left\{ e^{2 \pi i l / d^2}: 0 \leq l \leq d^2-1, \text{and \(d\) and \(\gcd(l,d^2)\) are square-free} \right\}. \] \item [-] \((X, \mathcal{B}, \Pi,T)\) is isomorphic to a translation on a compact Abelian group. \end{itemize}} As a consequence, the system \((X, \mathcal{B}, \Pi,T)\) is not weakly mixing, and has zero measure-theoretic entropy.