Sign changes of Hecke eigenvalues (Q903083)

Let \(f\) be either a holomorphic modular form or a Maass form of level 1 which is a cusp form and a Hecke eigenform, and let \(\lambda_f(n)\) denote the \(n\)-th Fourier coefficient of \(f\). The authors study the number of sign changes in the sequence of non-zero \(\lambda_f(n)\). Their first result shows that if \(f\) is holomorphic then aymptotically half the non-zero \(\lambda_f(n)\) are positive and half are negative. A similar result for Maass forms is due to \textit{P. D. T. A. Elliott} and \textit{J. Kish} [J. Math. Sci., Tokyo 23, No. 3, 615--658 (2016; Zbl 1414.11118)]. They then show that, in both the holomorphic and Maass form cases, there is a positive proportion of sign changes in the sequence of non-zero \(\lambda_f(n)\). This improves prior results of \textit{Y.-K. Lau} and \textit{J. Wu} [Math. Z. 263, No. 4, 959--970 (2009; Zbl 1242.11030)] and \textit{Y. J. Choie} et al. [in: Number theory and applications. Proceedings of the international conferences on number theory and cryptography, Allahabad, India, December 2006 and February 2007. New Delhi: Hindustan Book Agency. 25--32 (2009; Zbl 1247.11077)]. As a corollary, the authors show that if \(f\) is a holomorphic Hecke eigenform of level one then there exists a constant \(c>0\) such that for all \(x\) sufficiently large, \(|\sum_{n\leq x} \text{{sgn}}(\lambda_f(n))\,\text{{sgn}}(\lambda_f(n+1))|\leq (1-c) x.\)