Related papers: Almost Alternating Sums

The sum of square roots is as follows: Given $x_1,\dots,x_n \in \mathbb{Z}$ and $a_1,\dots,a_n \in \mathbb{N}$ decide whether $ E=\sum_{i=1}^n x_i \sqrt{a_i} \geq 0$. It is a prominent open problem (Problem 33 of the Open Problems Project),…

Let $k$ and $n$ be positive integers, $n>k$. Define $r(n,k)$ to be the minimum positive value of $$ |\sqrt{a_1} + ... + \sqrt{a_k} - \sqrt{b_1} - >... -\sqrt{b_k} | $$ where $ a_1, a_2, ..., a_k, b_1, b_2, ..., b_k $ are positive integers…

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…

In this article, we give an asymptotic bound for the exponential sum of the M\"obius function $\sum_{n \le x} \mu(n) e(\alpha n)$ for a fixed irrational number $\alpha\in\mathbb{R}$. This exponential sum was originally studied by Davenport…

In recent years some near-optimal estimates have been established for certain sum-product type estimates. This paper gives some first extremal results which provide information about when these bounds may or may not be tight. The main tool…

We deduce asymptotic formulas for the alternating sums $\sum_{n\le x} (-1)^{n-1} f(n)$ and $\sum_{n\le x} (-1)^{n-1} \frac1{f(n)}$, where $f$ is one of the following classical multiplicative arithmetic functions: Euler's totient function,…

We determine properties of the set of values of $ [nx] - ([x]/1 + [2x]/2 + \cdots + [nx]/x) $ as $n$ and $x$ vary.

For a real-valued and essentially bounded arithmetic function $f$, i.e., $f(n)\ll_{\varepsilon}\!n^{\varepsilon},\,\forall\varepsilon\!>\!0$, we \enspace give some optimal links between non-trivial bounds for the sums $\sum_{h\le…

In this paper, we study sums of shifted products $\sum\limits_{n \leq x} F(n) G(n-h)$ for any $|h| \leq x/2$ and arithmetic functions $F=f*1$ and $G=g*1$, with $f$ and $g$ small. We obtain asymptotic formula for different orders of…

We prove that when $f$ is a Rademacher random multiplicative function for any $\epsilon>0$, then $\sum_{n \leqslant x}\frac{f(n)}{\sqrt{n}} \ll (\log\log(x))^{3/4+\epsilon}$ for almost all $f$. We also show that there exist arbitrarily…

The problem of finding an optimum using noisy evaluations of a smooth cost function arises in many contexts, including economics, business, medicine, experiment design, and foraging theory. We derive an asymptotic bound E[ (x_t - x*)^2 ] >=…

Consider the divisor sum $\sum_{n\leq N}\tau(n^2+2bn+c)$ for integers $b$ and $c$ which satisfy certain extra conditions. For this average sum we obtain an explicit upper bound, which is close to the optimal. As an application we improve…

Given an odd integer polynomial f(x) of a degree k >=3, we construct a non-negative valued, normed trigonometric polynomial with the spectrum in the set of integer values of f(x) not greater than n, and a small free coefficient…

We show that if $f$ is the random completely multiplicative function, the probability that $\sum_{n\le x}\frac{f(n)}{n}$ is positive for every $x$ is at least $1-10^{-45}$, while also strictly smaller than $1$. For large $x$, we prove an…

Let $\mathbb{N}$ be the set of natural numbers and $\mathcal{S}_r=\big\{1^r, 2^r, 3^r,\cdots\big\}$ the set of $r$-th powers, where $r\ge 2$ is a natural number. Let $\mathcal{W}_r$ be an additive complement of $\mathcal{S}_r$ and $$…

Given a suitable arithmetic function h, we investigate the average order of h as it ranges over the values taken by an integral binary form F. A general upper bound is obtained for this quantity, in which the dependence upon the…

We study sums of a random multiplicative function; this is an example, of number-theoretic interest, of sums of products of independent random variables (chaoses). Using martingale methods, we establish a normal approximation for the sum…

Let $f$ be a Rademacher or Steinhaus random multiplicative function. For various arithmetically interesting subsets $\mathcal A\subseteq [1, N]\cap\mathbb N$ such that the distribution of $\sum_{n\in \mathcal A} f(n)$ is approximately…

A variation on the sum-product problem seeks to show that a set which is defined by additive and multiplicative operations will always be large. In this paper, we prove new results of this type. In particular, we show that for any finite…

The main results of this paper concern growth in sums of a $k$-convex function $f$. Firstly, we streamline the proof of a growth result for $f(A)$ where $A$ has small additive doubling, and improve the bound by removing logarithmic factors.…