GCD sums from Poisson integrals and systems of dilated functions (Q496455)

Let \((n_k)_{1\leq k \leq N}\) be a sequence of distinct positive integers and let \(0< \alpha \leq 1\). The authors obtain upper bounds for GCD sums of the form \[ \sum_{k, \ell=1}^{N} \frac{(\mathrm{gcd}(n_k,n_{\ell}) )^{2\alpha}}{(n_k n_{\ell})^{\alpha}}; \] see Theorem 1. The estimate for \(\alpha=1/2\) solves an old problem of \textit{T. Dyer} and \textit{G. Harman} [J. Lond. Math. Soc., II. Ser. 34, 1--11 (1986; Zbl 0602.10041)]. The main idea of the proof is based on identifying the sum with a certain Poisson integral on a polydisc. As an application of their bounds for such GCD sums, the authors establish a Carleson-Hunt-type inequality for systems of dilated functions of bounded variation or belonging to \(\mathrm{Lip}_{1/2}\) (see Theorem 2). This second result settles two open problems on the a.e. behavior of systems of dilated functions: the a.e. growth of sums of the form \(\sum_{k=1}^N f(n_k x)\) and the a.e. convergence of \(\sum_{k=1}^{\infty} c_k f(n_k x)\) when \(f\) is \(1\)-periodic and of bounded variation or in \(\mathrm{Lip}_{1/2}\) (Theorem 3). At the end of the paper the authors mention that after the initial submission of their manuscript \textit{A. Bondarenko} and \textit{K. Seip} [Bull. Lond. Math. Soc. 47, No. 1, 29--41 (2015; Zbl 1375.11055)] were able to improve the estimate of Theorem 1 for the case \(\alpha=1/2\), which is the only case for which the result of the reviewed paper is not optimal. Moreover, \textit{M. Lewko} and \textit{M. Radziwill} [``Refinements of Gál's theorem and applications'', Preprint, \url{arXiv:1408.2334}] were able to relax the conditions under which Theorem 3 holds. Finally, \textit{C. Aistleitner} et al. [Acta Arith. 168, No. 3, 221--246 (2015; Zbl 1339.42008)] substantially extended some of their methods.