English

Weighted partial sums of a random multiplicative function and their positivity

Number Theory 2025-09-15 v1

Abstract

In this paper, we study the probability that some weighted partial sums of a random multiplicative function ff are positive. Applying the characteristic decomposition, we obtain that if SS is a non-empty subset of the multiplicative residue class group (Z/mZ)×(\mathbb{Z}/m\mathbb{Z})^{\times} with mm being a fixed positive integer and A={a+mnn=0,1,2,3,}A=\{a+mn\mid n=0,1,2,3,\cdots\} with aS,a\in S, then there exists a positive number δ\delta independent of xx, such that P(A[1,x)f(n)n<0)>δ \mathbb{P}\left(\sum_{A\cap[1,x)}\frac{f(n)}{n}<0\right)>\delta unless the coefficients of the real characters in the expansion of the characteristic function of SS according to the characters of (Z/mZ)×(\mathbb{Z}/m\mathbb{Z})^{\times} are all non-negative, and the coefficients of the complex characters are all zero, in which case we have P(A[1,x)f(n)n<0)=O(exp(exp(lnxCln2x))) \mathbb{P}\left(\sum_{A\cap[1,x)}\frac{f(n)}{n}<0\right)=O\left(\exp\left(-\exp\left(\frac{\ln x}{C\ln_{2}x}\right)\right)\right) for a positive constant C.C. This includes as a special case a result of Angelo and Xu. We also extend the result to the cyclotomic field Kn=Q(ζn)K_{n}=\mathbb{Q}(\zeta_{n}) with ζn=e2πi/n\zeta_{n}=e^{2\pi i/n} and study the probability that these generalized weighted sums are positive. In addition, we deal with the positivity problem of certain partial sums related to the celebrated Ramanujan tau function τ(n)\tau(n) and the Ramanujan modular form Δ(q),\Delta(q), and obtain an upper bound for the probability that these partial sums are negative in a more general situation.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2509.10027,
  title  = {Weighted partial sums of a random multiplicative function and their positivity},
  author = {Shuming Liu and Bing He},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2509.10027},
  year   = {2025}
}

Comments

Comments are welcome

R2 v1 2026-07-01T05:33:05.753Z