Stronger linear lower-bound conjecture for the theta-function arithmetic sum

From papers

For positive integers hh and kk, define

S(h,k):=j=1k1(1)j+1+hj/k,S(h,k):=\sum_{j=1}^{k-1}(-1)^{j+1+\lfloor hj/k\rfloor},

where x\lfloor x\rfloor is the greatest integer less than or equal to xx, and define

S(k):=h=1k1S(h,k).S(k):=\sum_{h=1}^{k-1}S(h,k).

Stronger linear lower-bound conjecture. For each prime k>3119k>3119,

S(k)>3k.S(k)>3k.

This is a further numerical strengthening of the preceding lower bound. The source reports that the primes up to 1000010000 failing S(k)<3kS(k)<3k have largest value 31193119, but gives no proof of the conjecture.

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Sources & referencesView supporting material

Primary source

Bruce C. Berndt, Raghavendra N. Bhat, Jeffrey L. Meyer, Likun Xie and Alexandru Zaharescu, “An Arithmetic Sum Associated with the Classical Theta Function”, arXiv:2501.03234 (2026).

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