The Chowla conjecture and Landau-Siegel zeroes (Q6970142)

The Liouville function \(\lambda\) is the completely multiplicative function that is defined as \(\lambda(n)=(-1)^{\Omega(n)}\) for all \(n\in\mathbb{N}\), where \(\Omega(n)=\sum_{p^{\alpha}\|n}\alpha\). The prime number theorem implies that \(\sum_{n\leq x} \lambda(n) = o(x)\) as \(x \to \infty\), which means that the sign of \(\lambda(n)\) changes frequently as \(n\) grows. Chowla's conjecture states that for distinct fixed integers \(h_1,\dots, h_k\geq 0\),\N\[\N\sum_{n \leq x}\lambda(n+h_1)\cdots\lambda(n+h_k)=o(x).\N\]\NIn this paper, the authors study validity of Chowla's conjecture conditionally, under assumption of existence a Siegel zero, which is a real number \(\beta=1-1/(\eta\log q)\) for some \(\eta>0\), associated to a real primitive Dirichlet character \(\chi\) modulo \(q\) such that \(L(\beta,\chi)=0\). The number \(\eta\) is called the quality of the Landau-Siegel zero. The main result of the paper is as follows:\N\NLet \(q\geq 2\) be a positive integer and let \(\chi\) be a primitive quadratic character modulo \(q\) such that \(L(\cdot,\chi)\) has a Siegel zero \(\beta\) with quality \(\eta \geq 10\). Also, fix an integer \(k\geq 2\), distinct non-negative integers \(h_1,\ldots,h_k\), and \(\varepsilon\in(0,1/2)\). Then, there exists a constant \(c=c(\varepsilon,k)>0\) such that for \(x=q^V\) with \(V\in[1/2+\varepsilon,\eta]\),\N\[\N\sum_{n\leq x} \lambda(n+h_1)\cdots\lambda(n+h_k)\ll\frac{xV}{\eta}+x\exp(-c\sqrt{V\log{\eta}}).\N\]\NAs a corollary, the authors deduce that there exists a constant \(c'=c'(\varepsilon,k)>0\) such that for every \(x \in [q^{1/2+\varepsilon},q^{c^{-2}\log{\eta}}]\),\N\[\N\sum_{n\leq x} \lambda(n+h_1)\cdots\lambda(n+h_k) \ll x\exp(-c'\sqrt{\log{\eta}}).\N\]\NFurthermore, they deduce that for every \(\delta\in(0,1)\), the following holds for all \(x \in (q^{c^{-2}\log{\eta}},q^{\eta^{\delta}}]\),\N\[\N\sum_{n\leq x} \lambda(n+h_1)\cdots\lambda(n+h_k) \ll_{\delta} \frac{x}{\eta^{1-\delta}}.\N\]\NThe main key of the proof is a clever sieve result due to \textit{K. Matomäki} et al. [Int. Math. Res. Not. 2023, No. 23, 20337--20384 (2023; Zbl 1548.11119)]. The results of the present paper improve those of \textit{T. Tao} et al. [J. Lond. Math. Soc., II. Ser. 106, No. 4, 3317--3378 (2022; Zbl 08027259)], where same study has been done.