Square-full polynomials in short intervals and in arithmetic progressions (Q515991)

In this paper, the author studies the variance of sums of the indicator function of square-full polynomials in both arithmetic progressions and short intervals. Let \(p\) be an odd prime and \(q\) a power of \(p\). Let \(\mathbb F_q\) be the finite field with \(q\) elements, and let \(\mathcal M_{n}\) be the set of all monic polynomials of degree \(n\) with coefficients in \(\mathbb F_q\). \(f\in \mathcal M_n\) is called a square-full polynomial if for every polynomial \(P\in \mathcal M_n\) that divides \(f\), \(P^{2}\) also divides \(f\). Let \(\alpha_{2}\) denote the indicator function of square-full polynomials, i.e. \[ \alpha_{2}(f) = \begin{cases}1 & \text{if }f \text{ is square-full,} \\ 0 & \text{otherwise.} \end{cases} \] The mean value of \(\alpha_{2}\) over all monic polynomials is defined to be \[ \langle \alpha_{2}\rangle_{n}:=\frac{1}{q^{n}}\sum_{f\in \mathcal M_n}\alpha_{2}(f). \] Let \(Q\in \mathbb F_q[T]\) be a square-free polynomial of a positive degree. The sum of \(\alpha_{2}\) over all monic polynomials of degree \(n\) lying in the arithmetic progressions \(f=A\mod Q\) is \[ {S}_{\alpha_{2};n;Q}(A):=\sum_{\overset{f\in \mathcal M_n}{f=A \mod Q}}\alpha_{2}(f). \] The average of this sum \({S}_{\alpha_{2};n;Q}(A)\) when \(A\) varies over residue classes coprime to \(Q\) is \[ \langle {S}_{\alpha_{2};n;Q}\rangle=\frac{1}{\Phi(Q)}\sum_{\overset{f\in \mathcal M_n}{(f,Q)=1}}\alpha_{2}(f), \] where \(\Phi(Q)\) is the number of invertible residues modulo \(Q\). The author proves the following result on the variance of \({S}_{\alpha_{2};n;Q}\) \[ \operatorname{Var}({S}_{\alpha_{2};n;Q})=\frac{1}{\Phi(Q)}\sum_{\overset{A \mod Q}{(A,Q)=1}}|{S}_{\alpha_{2};n;Q}-\langle {S}_{\alpha_{2};n;Q}\rangle|^{2}. \] Theorem (main t prog). Let \(Q\) be a prime polynomial of degree higher than 3, and set \(N:=\deg Q - 1\). Then in the limit \(q\rightarrow\infty\) the following holds: for \(N\leq n\leq 2N+1\) \[ \operatorname{Var}({S}_{\alpha_{2};n;Q})\sim \frac{q^{\lfloor\frac{n}{2}\rfloor}}{\Phi(Q)}, \] for \(2N+1< n\) even \[ \operatorname{Var}({S}_{\alpha_{2};n;Q})\sim \frac{q^{n}}{\Phi(Q)^{2}}, \] for \(2N+1< n\) odd \[ \operatorname{Var}({S}_{\alpha_{2};n;Q})=O(\frac{q^{n-2}}{\Phi(Q)^{2}}). \] The restriction that \(Q\) is a prime in the above theorem is for simplicity only. A ``short interval'' in \(\mathbb F_q[x]\) is a set of the form \[ I(A;h) = \{f:||f-A||\leq q^h\}, \] where \(A\in \mathcal M_n\) and \(0\leq h\leq n-2\). The norm is \[ ||f||:=\#\mathbb{F}_q[t]/(f) = q^{\deg f}\;. \] The cardinality of such a short interval is \[ \#I(A;h)=q^{h+1}=:H \;. \] For \(1\leq h<n\) and \(A\in \mathcal M_n\), define \[ \mathcal N_{\alpha_{2};h}(A):= \sum_{f\in I(A;h)}\alpha_{2}(f) \] to be the number of square-full polynomials in the interval \(I(A;h)\). The mean value of \(\mathcal N_{\alpha_{2};h}\) when the average is taken over \(A\in \mathcal M_n\) is \[ \langle \mathcal N_{\alpha_{2};h} \rangle := \frac{1}{q^{n}} \sum_{A\in \mathcal M_n} \mathcal N_{\alpha_{2};h}(A) \] The author proves the following result on the variance of \(\mathcal N_{\alpha_{2};h}\) \[ \operatorname{Var}(\mathcal N_{\alpha_{2};h}):=\frac{1}{q^{n}}\sum_{A\in \mathcal M_n}|\mathcal N_{\alpha_{2};h}(A)-\langle \mathcal N_{\alpha_{2};h} \rangle|^{2}. \] Theorem (main t intervals). Set \(N:=n-h-2\). Then in the limit \(q\rightarrow\infty\) the following holds: for \(0\leq n\leq 2N\) \[ \operatorname{Var}(\mathcal N_{\alpha_{2};h})\sim \frac{H}{q^n}\cdot q^{\lfloor\frac{n}{2}\rfloor}, \] for \(2N< n\leq 5N\) \[ \operatorname{Var}(\mathcal N_{\alpha_{2};h})\sim \frac{H}{q^n}\cdot q^{\lfloor\frac{n+N}{3}\rfloor}, \] for \(5N< n\) \[ \operatorname{Var}(\mathcal N_{\alpha_{2};h})\sim \frac{H}{q^n}\cdot q^{\frac{n+N}{6}}\cdot q^{\frac{-\lambda_{n}}{6}}, \] where \[ \lambda_{n}= \begin{cases} 0 & n=5N \mod \,6, \\ 7 & n=5N+1 \mod \,6, \\6 & n=5N+2 \mod \,6, \\3 & n=5N+3 \mod \,6, \\4 & n=5N+4 \mod \,6, \\11 & n=5N+5 \mod \,6. \end{cases} \]