Divisor-bounded multiplicative functions in short intervals (Q6042362)

In their breakthrough paper [Ann. Math. (2) 183, No. 3, 1015--1056 (2016; Zbl 1339.11084)], \textit{K. Matomäki} and \textit{M. Radziwiłł} obtained estimates for the error term in approximating the average of the multiplicative function \(f:\mathbb{N}\to [-1,1]\) in a typical short interval by a corresponding long interval average. In the paper under review, the author extends the Matomäki-Radziwiłł theorem to a large collection of unbounded multiplicative functions that are uniformly bounded, but not necessarily bounded by 1, on the primes. The main result of the paper gives an upper bound for the following average quantity \[ \frac{2}{X}\int _{X/2}^X \left|\frac{1}{h}\sum _{x-h< n \le x} f(n) - \frac{1}{h} \int _{x-h}^x u^{it_0} \mathrm{d}u \cdot \frac{2}{X} \sum _{X/2 < n \le X} f(n)n^{-it_0}\right|^2 \mathrm{d}x, \] estimating averages of \(f\) in typical intervals of length \(h(\log X)^c\), with \(h = h(X) \to \infty\) and \(c\ge 0\) a constant depending on \(f\), determined by the distribution of \(\{|f(p) |\}_p\) in an explicit way. The function \(f\) in the above is a multiplicative function satisfying some certain conditions, including \(|f(p)|\le B\) for all primes \(p \le X\), for some \(B\ge 1\). Meanwhile, to prove the main result, the author gives upper estimates for the following quantities \begin{gather*} \left|\frac{1}{h}\sum _{x-h< n \le x} f(n)n^{-it_0} - \frac{2}{X}\sum _{X/2< n \le X} f(n)n^{-it_0}\right|, \\ \left|\frac{1}{h} \sum _{x-h< n \le x} f(n) - \frac{1}{h}\int _{x-h}^x u^{it_0} \mathrm{d}u \cdot \frac{2}{X}\sum _{X/2 < n \le X} f(n)n^{-it_0} \right|. \end{gather*} The author provides three applications. The first one concerns the sequence \(\{\lambda _f(n)\}_n\) of normalized Fourier coefficients of a primitive non-CM holomorphic cusp form, for which the classical Rankin-Selberg method asserts that \(\frac{1}{X}\sum_{n\le X}|\lambda _f(n) |^2=c_f+O(X^{-2/5})\), where \(c_f>0\) is a constant depending on \(f\). Regarding to this result, the author estimates the following average quantity \[ \frac{1}{X}\int _X^{2X} \left( \frac{1}{h} \sum _{x < n \le x+h} |\lambda _f(n) |^2 - c_f\right) ^2 \mathrm{d}x \] on the typical short intervals of length \(h\log X\), where \(h = h(X) \to \infty\). Generalizing this estimation, he approximates \[ \frac{1}{X}\int _X^{2X} \left( \frac{1}{h}\sum _{x< n \le x + h} |\lambda _{\pi }(n) |^2 - \frac{1}{X}\sum _{X < n \le 2X} |\lambda _{\pi }(n) |^2 \right) ^2 \mathrm{d}x, \] where \(\lambda _{\pi }(n)\) is the \(n\)th coefficient of the standard \(L\)-function of an automorphic representation \(\pi\) with unitary central character for \(\mathrm{GL}_m\), \(m \ge 2\), provided \(\pi\) satisfies the generalized Ramanujan conjecture. The second application concerns short interval averages of the moments \(n \mapsto |\lambda _f(n) |^{\alpha }\), for any \(\alpha > 0\), providing an upper bound for the following quantity \[ \frac{1}{X}\int _X^{2X} \left( \frac{1}{h} \sum _{x< n \le x+h} |\lambda _f(n) |^{\alpha } - \frac{1}{X}\sum _{X < n \le 2X} |\lambda _f(n) |^{\alpha }\right) ^2 \mathrm{d}x, \] over intervals of length \(h(\log X)^{c_{\alpha }}\), with \(c_{\alpha } > 0\) explicit, for any \(\alpha > 0\), as \(h = h(X) \to \infty\). The third application concerns short interval averages of the (non-multiplicative) Hooley \(\Delta\)-function, for which the author gives a lower estimate for \(\frac{1}{h}\sum _{x-h < n \le x} \Delta (n)\) of order \(\log \log X\) in typical short intervals of length \((\log X)^{1/2+\eta }\), where \(\eta >0\) is fixed.