Square-full polynomials in short intervals and in arithmetic progressions

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Abstract: We study the variance of sums of the indicator function of square-full polynomials in both arithmetic progressions and short intervals. Our work is in the context of the ring Fq[T] of polynomials over a finite field Fq of q elements, in the limit qightarrowinfty. We use a recent equidistribution result due to N. Katz to express these variances in terms of triple matrix integrals over the unitary group, and evaluate them.


In this paper, the author studies the variance of sums of the indicator function of square-full polynomials in both arithmetic progressions and short intervals. Let \(p\) be an odd prime and \(q\) a power of \(p\). Let \(\mathbb F_q\) be the finite field with \(q\) elements, and let \(\mathcal M_{n}\) be the set of all monic polynomials of degree \(n\) with coefficients in \(\mathbb F_q\). \(f\in \mathcal M_n\) is called a square-full polynomial if for every polynomial \(P\in \mathcal M_n\) that divides \(f\), \(P^{2}\) also divides \(f\). Let \(\alpha_{2}\) denote the indicator function of square-full polynomials, i.e. \[ \alpha_{2}(f) = \begin{cases}1 & \text{if }f \text{ is square-full,} \\ 0 & \text{otherwise.} \end{cases} \] The mean value of \(\alpha_{2}\) over all monic polynomials is defined to be \[ \langle \alpha_{2}\rangle_{n}:=\frac{1}{q^{n}}\sum_{f\in \mathcal M_n}\alpha_{2}(f). \] Let \(Q\in \mathbb F_q[T]\) be a square-free polynomial of a positive degree. The sum of \(\alpha_{2}\) over all monic polynomials of degree \(n\) lying in the arithmetic progressions \(f=A\mod Q\) is \[ {S}_{\alpha_{2};n;Q}(A):=\sum_{\overset{f\in \mathcal M_n}{f=A \mod Q}}\alpha_{2}(f). \] The average of this sum \({S}_{\alpha_{2};n;Q}(A)\) when \(A\) varies over residue classes coprime to \(Q\) is \[ \langle {S}_{\alpha_{2};n;Q}\rangle=\frac{1}{\Phi(Q)}\sum_{\overset{f\in \mathcal M_n}{(f,Q)=1}}\alpha_{2}(f), \] where \(\Phi(Q)\) is the number of invertible residues modulo \(Q\). The author proves the following result on the variance of \({S}_{\alpha_{2};n;Q}\) \[ \operatorname{Var}({S}_{\alpha_{2};n;Q})=\frac{1}{\Phi(Q)}\sum_{\overset{A \mod Q}{(A,Q)=1}}|{S}_{\alpha_{2};n;Q}-\langle {S}_{\alpha_{2};n;Q}\rangle|^{2}. \] Theorem (main t prog). Let \(Q\) be a prime polynomial of degree higher than 3, and set \(N:=\deg Q - 1\). Then in the limit \(q\rightarrow\infty\) the following holds: for \(N\leq n\leq 2N+1\) \[ \operatorname{Var}({S}_{\alpha_{2};n;Q})\sim \frac{q^{\lfloor\frac{n}{2}\rfloor}}{\Phi(Q)}, \] for \(2N+1< n\) even \[ \operatorname{Var}({S}_{\alpha_{2};n;Q})\sim \frac{q^{n}}{\Phi(Q)^{2}}, \] for \(2N+1< n\) odd \[ \operatorname{Var}({S}_{\alpha_{2};n;Q})=O(\frac{q^{n-2}}{\Phi(Q)^{2}}). \] The restriction that \(Q\) is a prime in the above theorem is for simplicity only. A ``short interval in \(\mathbb F_q[x]\) is a set of the form \[ I(A;h) = \{f:||f-A||\leq q^h\}, \] where \(A\in \mathcal M_n\) and \(0\leq h\leq n-2\). The norm is \[ ||f||:=\#\mathbb{F}_q[t]/(f) = q^{\deg f}\;. \] The cardinality of such a short interval is \[ \#I(A;h)=q^{h+1}=:H \;. \] For \(1\leq h<n\) and \(A\in \mathcal M_n\), define \[ \mathcal N_{\alpha_{2};h}(A):= \sum_{f\in I(A;h)}\alpha_{2}(f) \] to be the number of square-full polynomials in the interval \(I(A;h)\). The mean value of \(\mathcal N_{\alpha_{2};h}\) when the average is taken over \(A\in \mathcal M_n\) is \[ \langle \mathcal N_{\alpha_{2};h} \rangle := \frac{1}{q^{n}} \sum_{A\in \mathcal M_n} \mathcal N_{\alpha_{2};h}(A) \] The author proves the following result on the variance of \(\mathcal N_{\alpha_{2};h}\) \[ \operatorname{Var}(\mathcal N_{\alpha_{2};h}):=\frac{1}{q^{n}}\sum_{A\in \mathcal M_n}|\mathcal N_{\alpha_{2};h}(A)-\langle \mathcal N_{\alpha_{2};h} \rangle|^{2}. \] Theorem (main t intervals). Set \(N:=n-h-2\). Then in the limit \(q\rightarrow\infty\) the following holds: for \(0\leq n\leq 2N\) \[ \operatorname{Var}(\mathcal N_{\alpha_{2};h})\sim \frac{H}{q^n}\cdot q^{\lfloor\frac{n}{2}\rfloor}, \] for \(2N< n\leq 5N\) \[ \operatorname{Var}(\mathcal N_{\alpha_{2};h})\sim \frac{H}{q^n}\cdot q^{\lfloor\frac{n+N}{3}\rfloor}, \] for \(5N< n\) \[ \operatorname{Var}(\mathcal N_{\alpha_{2};h})\sim \frac{H}{q^n}\cdot q^{\frac{n+N}{6}}\cdot q^{\frac{-\lambda_{n}}{6}}, \] where \[ \lambda_{n}= \begin{cases} 0 & n=5N \mod \,6, \\ 7 & n=5N+1 \mod \,6, \\6 & n=5N+2 \mod \,6, \\3 & n=5N+3 \mod \,6, \\4 & n=5N+4 \mod \,6, \\11 & n=5N+5 \mod \,6. \end{cases} \]











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