Uniform better-than-square-root cancellation conjecture for smooth numbers

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Let ff be a Steinhaus random multiplicative function, let P(n)P(n) denote the largest prime factor of nn, and define

Ψ(x,y)=#{n⩽x:P(n)⩽y}.\Psi(x,y)=\#\{n\leqslant x:P(n)\leqslant y\}.

Uniform smooth-number cancellation conjecture. The paper conjectures that its main estimate should hold uniformly for every 2⩽y⩽x2\leqslant y\leqslant x:

E∣∑1⩽n⩽x(n)⩽yf(n)∣=o(Ψ(x,y)1/2).\mathbb E\left|\sum_{\substack{1\leqslant n\leqslant x\P(n)\leqslant y}}f(n)\right|=o\left(\Psi(x,y)^{1/2}\right).

The proved theorem establishes this only for (log⁡x)30⩽y⩽x(\log x)^{30}\leqslant y\leqslant x; extending it to the full range 2⩽y⩽x2\leqslant y\leqslant x remains open.

References

Primary source

Seth Hardy and Max Wenqiang Xu, “Helson's conjecture for smooth numbers”, arXiv:2511.03430 (2026).

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