Bounds for exponential sums with random multiplicative coefficients

We consider partial sums of a weighted Steinhaus random multiplicative function and view this as a model for the Riemann zeta function. We give a description of the tails and high moments of this object. Using these we determine the likely maximum of $T \log T$ independently sampled copies of our sum and find that this is in agreement with a conjecture of Farmer--Gonek--Hughes on the maximum of the Riemann zeta function. We also consider the question of almost sure bounds. We...

We show that for a Steinhaus random multiplicative function $f:\mathbb{N}\to\mathbb{D}$ and any polynomial $P(x)\in\mathbb{Z}[x]$ of $\text{deg}\ P\ge 2$ which is not of the form $w(x+c)^{d}$ for some $w\in \mathbb{Z}$, $c\in \mathbb{Q}$, we have \[\frac{1}{\sqrt{x}}\sum_{n\le x} f(P(n)) \xrightarrow{d} \mathcal{CN}(0,1),\] where $\mathcal{CN}(0,1)$ is the standard complex Gaussian distribution with mean $0$ and variance $1.$ This confirms a conjecture of Najnudel in a strong...

For $X(n)$ a Rademacher or Steinhaus random multiplicative function, we consider the random polynomials $$ P_N(\theta) = \frac1{\sqrt{N}} \sum_{n\leq N} X(n) e(n\theta), $$ and show that the $2k$-th moments on the unit circle $$ \int_0^1 \big| P_N(\theta) \big|^{2k}\, d\theta $$ tend to Gaussian moments in the sense of mean-square convergence, uniformly for $k \ll (\log N / \log \log N)^{1/3}$, but that in contrast to the case of i.i.d. coefficients, this behavior does not pe...

We give a short review of recent progress on determining the order of magnitude of moments $\mathbb{E}|\sum_{n \leq x} f(n)|^{2q}$ of random multiplicative functions, and of closely related issues. We hope this can serve as a concise introduction to some of the ideas involved, for those who may not have too much background in the area.

Inspired in the papers by Angelo and Xu, Q.J Math., 74, pp. 767-777, and improvements by Kerr and Klurman, arXiv:2211.05540, we study the probability that the weighted sums of a Rademacher random multiplicative function, $\sum_{n\leq x}f(n)n^{-\sigma}$, are positive for all $x\geq x_\sigma\geq 1$ in the regime $\sigma\to1/2^+$. In a previous paper by the author, when $\sigma\leq 1/2$ this probability is zero. Here we give a positive lower bound for this probability depending ...

We study two models of random multiplicative functions: Rademacher random multiplicative functions supported on the squarefree integers $f$, and Rademacher random completely multiplicative functions $f^*$. We prove that the partial sums $\sum_{n\leq x}f^*(n)$ and $\sum_{n\leq x}\frac{f(n)}{\sqrt{n}}$ change sign infinitely often as $x\to\infty$, almost surely. The case $\sum_{n\leq x}\frac{f^*(n)}{\sqrt{n}}$ is left as an open question and we stress the possibility of only a ...

Let $\alpha$ be a Steinhaus or a Rademacher random multiplicative function. For a wide class of multiplicative functions $f$ we show that the sum $\sum_{n \le x}\alpha(n) f(n)$, normalised to have mean square $1$, has a non-Gaussian limiting distribution. More precisely, we establish a generalised central limit theorem with random variance determined by the total mass of a random measure associated with $\alpha f$. Our result applies to $d_z$, the $z$-th divisor function, a...

Let $\mathcal{P}$ be the set of the primes. We consider a class of random multiplicative functions $f$ supported on the squarefree integers, such that $\{f(p)\}_{p\in\mathcal{P}}$ form a sequence of $\pm1$ valued independent random variables with $\mathbb{E} f(p)<0$, $\forall p\in \mathcal{P}$. The function $f$ is called strongly biased (towards classical M\"obius function), if $\sum_{p\in\mathcal{P}}\frac{f(p)}{p}=-\infty$ a.s., and it is weakly biased if $\sum_{p\in\mathcal...

We investigate when the better than square-root cancellation phenomenon exists for $\sum_{n\le N}a(n)f(n)$, where $a(n)\in \mathbb{C}$ and $f(n)$ is a random multiplicative function. We focus on the case where $a(n)$ is the indicator function of $R$ rough numbers. We prove that $\log \log R \asymp (\log \log x)^{\frac{1}{2}}$ is the threshold for the better than square-root cancellation phenomenon to disappear.

We show that the $L^1$ norm of an exponential sum of length $X$ and with coefficients equal to the Liouville or M\"{o}bius function is at least $\gg_{\varepsilon} X^{1/4 - \varepsilon}$ for any given $\varepsilon$. For the Liouville function this improves on the lower bound $\gg X^{c/\log\log X}$ due to Balog and Perelli (1998). For the M\"{o}bius function this improves the lower bound $\gg X^{1/6}$ due to Balog and Ruzsa (2001). The large discrepancy between these lower bo...