Helson's conjecture for smooth numbers
Number Theory
2026-02-09 v3 Classical Analysis and ODEs
Complex Variables
Functional Analysis
Probability
Abstract
Let denote the count of -smooth numbers below and denote the largest prime factor of . We prove that for a Steinhaus random multiplicative function, the partial sums over -smooth numbers always enjoy better than squareroot cancellation, in the sense that uniformly on the entire range . The bounds are quantitative and give a large saving when isn't too close to .
Cite
@article{arxiv.2511.03430,
title = {Helson's conjecture for smooth numbers},
author = {Seth Hardy and Max Wenqiang Xu},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2511.03430},
year = {2026}
}
Comments
35 pages, including an 11-page introduction. This is a significant update which simplifies the proof of Theorem 1.2 (previously Theorem 1.3) and covers the whole range of smoothness parameter