On the Dirichlet divisor problem in short intervals (Q744843)

Assume that \(d(n)\) denotes the number of positive divisors of \(n\), and let \[ \Delta(x)=\sum_{n\leq x}d(n)-x\log x-(2\gamma-1)x, \] which is the error term in classical Dirichlet divisor problem. In the paper under review, the authors obtain several results involving the difference \(\Delta(x+U)-\Delta(x)\) with \(U=o(x)\), including the bounds \(\Delta(x+U)-\Delta(x)\ll_\varepsilon x^{\frac14+\varepsilon}U^\frac14\) for \(1\ll U\ll x^\frac35\), and \(\Delta(x+U)-\Delta(x)\ll_\varepsilon x^{\frac29+\varepsilon}U^\frac13\) for \(1\ll U\ll x^\frac23\). The proof of these bounds is based on a truncated form of the Voronoï formula for \(\Delta(x)\). The authors propose a conjecture on the mean value of \(\max_{0\leq u\leq U}|\Delta(x+u)-\Delta(x)|^2\) over the interval \([T,T+H]\) with some certain conditions on \(U\) and \(H\), and give a partial answer to it, from which they reprove the known approximation \(\Delta(x)\ll x^\frac13(\log x)^\frac53(\log\log x)^\frac13\), without the use of exponential sums. They also study the sign changes of \(\Delta(x)\) over short intervals, and consider validity of a problem due to \textit{D. R. Heath-Brown} and \textit{K. M. Tsang} [J. Number Theory 49, No. 1, 73--83 (1994; Zbl 0810.11046)] under assumption that \(\Delta(x)\) could have enough sign changes.