The Möbius function is strongly orthogonal to nilsequences

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Publication:410107

DOI10.4007/ANNALS.2012.175.2.3zbMATH Open1347.37019arXiv0807.1736OpenAlexW2165859273WikidataQ56689344 ScholiaQ56689344MaRDI QIDQ410107FDOQ410107

Terence Tao, Ben Green

Publication date: 17 April 2012

Published in: Annals of Mathematics. Second Series (Search for Journal in Brave)

Abstract: We show that the Mobius function mu(n) is strongly asymptotically orthogonal to any polynomial nilsequence n -> F(g(n)L). Here, G is a simply-connected nilpotent Lie group with a discrete and cocompact subgroup L (so G/L is a nilmanifold), g : Z -> G is a polynomial sequence and F: G/L -> R is a Lipschitz function. More precisely, we show that the inner product of mu(n) with F(g(n)L) over {1,...,N} is bounded by 1/log^A N, for all A > 0. In particular, this implies the Mobius and Nilsequence conjecture MN(s) from our earlier paper "Linear equations in primes" for every positive integer s. This is one of two major ingredients in our programme, outlined in that paper, to establish a large number of cases of the generalised Hardy-Littlewood conjecture, which predicts how often a collection psi_1,...,psi_t : Z^d -> Z of linear forms all take prime values. The proof is a relatively quick application of the results in our recent companion paper on the distribution of polynomial orbits on nilmanifolds. We give some applications of our main theorem. We show, for example, that the Mobius function is uncorrelated with any bracket polynomial. We also obtain a result about the distribution of nilsequences n -> a^nxL as n ranges only over the primes.


Full work available at URL: https://arxiv.org/abs/0807.1736




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