Related papers: Beyond the Erd\H{o}s discrepancy problem in functi…
As early as the 1930s, P\'al Erd\H{o}s conjectured that: {\em for any multiplicative function $f:\mathbb{N}\to\{-1,1\}$, the partial sums $\sum_{n\leq x}f(n)$ are unbounded.} Considering this conjecture, in this paper we consider…
We show that for any sequence $f: {\bf N} \to \{-1,+1\}$ taking values in $\{-1,+1\}$, the discrepancy $$ \sup_{n,d \in {\bf N}} \left|\sum_{j=1}^n f(jd)\right| $$ of $f$ is infinite. This answers a question of Erd\H{o}s. In fact the…
The Erd\H{o}s discrepancy problem, now a theorem by T. Tao, asks whether every sequence with values plus or minus one has unbounded discrepancy along all homogeneous arithmetic progressions. We establish weighted variants of this problem,…
A modified Dirichlet character $f$ is a completely multiplicative function such that for some Dirichlet character $\chi$, $f(p)=\chi(p)$ for all but a finite number of primes $p\in S$, and for those exceptional primes $p\in S$, $|f(p)|\leq…
We establish several results concerning the expected general phenomenon that, given a multiplicative function $f:\mathbb{N}\to\mathbb{C}$, the values of $f(n)$ and $f(n+a)$ are "generally" independent unless $f$ is of a "special" form.…
We develop an approach to study character sums, weighted by a multiplicative function $f:\mathbb{F}_q[t]\to S^1$, of the form \begin{equation} \sum_{G\in \mathcal{M}_N}f(G)\chi(G)\xi(G), \end{equation} where $\chi$ is a Dirichlet character…
According to the Erd\H{o}s discrepancy conjecture, for any infinite $\pm 1$ sequence, there exists a homogeneous arithmetic progression of unbounded discrepancy. In other words, for any $\pm 1$ sequence $(x_1,x_2,...)$ and a discrepancy…
We prove that if $f(n)$ is a Steinhaus or Rademacher random multiplicative function, there almost surely exist arbitrarily large values of $x$ for which $|\sum_{n \leq x} f(n)| \geq \sqrt{x} (\log\log x)^{1/4+o(1)}$. This is the first such…
We present a class of multiplicative functions $f:\mathbb{N}\to\mathbb{C}$ with bounded partial sums. The novelty here is that our functions do not need to have modulus bounded by $1$. The key feature is that they pretend to be the constant…
We consider the problem of $\Omega$ bounds for the partial sums of a modified character, \textit{i.e.}, a completely multiplicative function $f$ such that $f(p)=\chi(p)$ for all but a finite number of primes $p$, where $\chi$ is a primitive…
We introduce a simple sieve-theoretic approach to studying partial sums of multiplicative functions which are close to their mean value. This enables us to obtain various new results as well as strengthen existing results with new proofs.…
The Landau-Selberg-Delange method provides an asymptotic formula for the partial sums of a multiplicative function whose average value on primes is a fixed complex number $v$. The shape of this asymptotic implies that $f$ can get very small…
We prove maximum and comparison principles for fractional discrete derivatives in the integers. Regularity results when the space is a mesh of length $h$, and approximation theorems to the continuous fractional derivatives are shown. When…
We study for bounded multiplicative functions $f$ sums of the form \begin{align*} \sum_{\substack{n\leq x \atop n\equiv a\pmod q}}f(n), \end{align*} establishing that their variance over residue classes $a \pmod q$ is small as soon as…
We study the shifted convolution problem for the divisor function in function fields in the large degree limit, that is, the average value of $d(f) d(f+h)$ where $f$ runs over monic polynomials in $\mathbb{F}_q[T]$ of a given degree, and…
We study a finite form of the classical interval discrepancy problem. Starting from the unit interval, one repeatedly splits an existing interval into two until $n$ intervals have been produced. The discrepancy of such a process is the…
In analytic number theory, several results make use of information regarding the prime values of a multiplicative function in order to extract information about its averages. Examples of such results include Wirsing's theorem and the…
Let $g:\mathbb{N}\to\{-1,1\}$ be a completely multiplicative function, $\mu$ be the M\"obius function and $\mu_2^2(n)$ be the indicator that $n$ is cubefree. We prove that $f=\mu^2g$ and $f=\mu_2^2g$ have unbounded partial sums. Our proofs…
Erd\H{o}s proved that $\mathcal{F}(A) := \sum_{a \in A}\frac{1}{a\log a}$ converges for any primitive set of integers $A$ and later conjectured this sum is maximized when $A$ is the set of primes. Banks and Martin further conjectured that…
We prove that any $q$-automatic completely multiplicative function $f:\mathbb{N}\to\mathbb{C}$ essentially coincides with a Dirichlet character. This answers a question of J. P. Allouche and L. Goldmakher and confirms a conjecture of J.…