English

A short proof of Helson's conjecture

Number Theory 2025-02-12 v4 Probability

Abstract

Let α ⁣:NS1\alpha \colon \mathbb{N} \to S^1 be the Steinhaus multiplicative function: a completely multiplicative function such that (α(p))p prime(\alpha(p))_{p\text{ prime}} are i.i.d.~random variables uniformly distributed on the complex unit circle S1S^1. Helson conjectured that Enxα(n)=o(x)\mathbb{E}|\sum_{n\le x}\alpha(n)|=o(\sqrt{x}) as xx \to \infty, and this was solved in a strong form by Harper. We give a short proof of the conjecture using a result of Saksman and Webb on a random model for the zeta function.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2405.19151,
  title  = {A short proof of Helson's conjecture},
  author = {Ofir Gorodetsky and Mo Dick Wong},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2405.19151},
  year   = {2025}
}

Comments

9 pages. Minor mistakes and typos fixed and discussion of previous works added; journal version

R2 v1 2026-06-28T16:45:43.116Z