On a paper of K. Soundararajan on smooth numbers in arithmetic progressions (Q643544)

Let \(S(y)\) denote the set of positive integers with no prime factor greater than \(y\). For positive integers \(a\), \(q\) with \((a,q)= 1\) let \[ \Psi_q(x,y)= \#\{n\leq x: n\in S(y), (n,q)= 1\},\;\Psi(x,y; q,a)= \#\{n\leq x: n\in S(y), n\equiv a (\bmod q)\}. \] In this paper two results are established that considerably extend the range in corresponding theorems in [Anatomy of Integers, CRM Proc. Lect. Notes 46, 115--128 (2008; Zbl 1186.11057)] by \textit{K. Soundararajan}. The present author proves: Theorem 1: Let \(\delta> 0\) and assume that \(y\leq x\), \(2\leq q\leq y^{4\sqrt{e}-\delta}\) and \((a,q)= 1\). If \(y\) is large enough depending on \(\delta\) then \[ \Psi(x,y; q,a)\sim{1\over \varphi(q)} \Psi_q(x,y)\quad\text{as }{\log x\over\log q}\to \infty. \] Theorem 2: Let \(A\) be a given positive real number and suppose \(y\), \(q\) are large with \(q\leq y^4\). Then there is a subgroup \(H\) of \((\mathbb Z/q\mathbb Z)^*\) of index bounded in terms of \(A\) only such that whenever \(a,b\in(\mathbb Z/q\mathbb Z)^*\) satisfy \({a\over b}\in H\) we have \[ \Psi(x,y; q,a)- \Psi(x,y; q,b)= o(\Psi_q(x,y)/\varphi(q))\quad\text{as }\frac{\log x}{\log q}\to \infty. \] In both his theorems Soundararajan had the extra assumption that \(e^{y^{1-\delta}}\geq x\geq y^{(\log\log y)^4}\). Any extension in the range for \(q\) in Theorem 1 to \(q\leq y^4\) with \(A\geq 4\sqrt{e}\) would have implications for the size of the least quadratic non-residue modulo \(q\) beyond known results. In both papers a smooth weight function is introduced and leads to a version of Theorem 1 with a quantitative error term. The proofs of the above theorems depend on modifying or replacing parts of Soundararajan's argument.