English

Correlations of multiplicative functions with their partial sums

Number Theory 2026-05-15 v10

Abstract

Let ζ(.)\zeta(.) denote the Riemann zeta function and let a(.)a(.) and A(.)A(.) respectively denote a multiplicative function and its corresponding summatory function. We consider the correlation a(n)A(n1)(T)=1ζ(1+δ(T))nT1ca(n)A(n1)n1+δ(T) \langle a(n)A(n-1) \rangle (T) = \frac{1}{\zeta(1+\delta(T))}\sum_{n\leq T^{1-c}}\frac{a(n)A(n-1)}{n^{1+\delta(T)}} where 0<c<10<c<1 is arbitrary and 0<δ(T)=O(Tc1)0<\delta(T)=O\left(T^{c-1}\right) is suitably chosen. Let μ(.)\mu(.) and λ(.)\lambda(.) denote the M\"obius function and the Liouville function respectively while M(.)M(.) and L(.)L(.) denote their corresponding summatory functions. Under the Riemann hypothesis and simplicity of the nontrivial zeros ρ=1/2+iγ\rho=1/2+ i \gamma of ζ(s)\zeta(s) we show that μ(n)M(n1)(T)=3π2(1T(c1)δ(T))+0<γ<T1ρζ(ρ)2 \langle \mu(n)M(n-1) \rangle (T)= -\frac{3}{\pi^{2}}\left(1-T^{(c-1)\delta(T)}\right)+\sum_{0<\gamma<T}\frac{1}{\left|\rho\zeta'(\rho)\right|^{2}} and λ(n)L(n1)(T)=12(1ζ2(1/2)1+T(c1)δ(T))+0<γ<Tζ(2ρ)ρζ(ρ)2 \langle \lambda(n)L(n-1) \rangle (T)=\frac{1}{2}\left(\frac{1}{\zeta^{2}(1/2)}-1+T^{(c-1)\delta(T)}\right)+\sum_{0<\gamma<T}\left|\frac{\zeta(2\rho)}{\rho\zeta'(\rho)}\right|^{2} as TT\rightarrow \infty where 0T(c1)δ(T)<10\leq T^{(c-1)\delta(T)}<1. These results combined with numerical observations suggest that there is anticorrelation between μ(n)\mu(n) and M(n1)M(n-1) as well as between λ(n)\lambda(n) and L(n1)L(n-1), where the correlation is computed using a logarithmic average. This would imply effective upper bounds on 1/ζ(ρ)\left|1/\zeta'(\rho)\right|.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2409.02106,
  title  = {Correlations of multiplicative functions with their partial sums},
  author = {Gordon Chavez},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2409.02106},
  year   = {2026}
}

Comments

Preprint submitted to Int. J. Number Theory 04/2025, accepted 03/2026 with minor revisions

R2 v1 2026-06-28T18:32:59.305Z