Divisor-bounded multiplicative functions in short intervals

Abstract

We extend the Matom\"{a}ki-Radziwi\l\l{} theorem to a large collection of unbounded multiplicative functions that are uniformly bounded, but not necessarily bounded by 1, on the primes. Our result allows us to estimate averages of such a function $f$ in typical intervals of length $h(\log X)^c$, with $h = h(X) \rightarrow \infty$ and where $c = c_f \geq 0$ is determined by the distribution of $\{|f(p)|\}_p$ in an explicit way. We give three applications. First, we show that the classical Rankin-Selberg-type asymptotic formula for partial sums of $|\lambda_f(n)|^2$, where $\{\lambda_f(n)\}_n$ is the sequence of normalized Fourier coefficients of a primitive non-CM holomorphic cusp form, persists in typical short intervals of length $h\log X$, if $h = h(X) \rightarrow \infty$. We also generalize this result to sequences $\{|\lambda_{\pi}(n)|^2\}_n$, where $\lambda_{\pi}(n)$ is the $n$th coefficient of the standard $L$-function of an automorphic representation $\pi$ with unitary central character for $GL_m$, $m \geq 2$, provided $\pi$ satisfies the generalized Ramanujan conjecture. Second, using recent developments in the theory of automorphic forms we estimate the variance of averages of all positive real moments $\{|\lambda_f(n)|^{\alpha}\}_n$ over intervals of length $h(\log X)^{c_{\alpha}}$, with $c_{\alpha} > 0$ explicit, for any $\alpha > 0$, as $h = h(X) \rightarrow \infty$. Finally, we show that the (non-multiplicative) Hooley $\Delta$-function has average value $\gg \log\log X$ in typical short intervals of length $(\log X)^{1/2+\eta}$, where $\eta >0$ is fixed.