Identifying ε: Möbius Structure and the Composite Variance in the Gauss Circle Problem
Year: 2026
Type: preprint
Abstract: Hardy conjectured that the classical Gauss circle error satises E(x) = O(x1/4+ε) for every ε>0. This paper analyses a related quantity: the uctuation ER(x) = N(x)−x/(2π) in the primitive coprime count N(x) at a single scale. We show that ER admits an exact Möbius decomposition into 2ω(s) fractional-part terms, where ω(s) is the number of distinct prime factors of s= m+ n. For prime s, this reduces to two terms with constant variance. For composite s, we identify the per-s variance formula Var(e|s) = A(s)/12*φ(s)/s+Var(T)/4 , A(s) = 2^ω(s) +1−Prod p|s (1 +1/p^2) , empirically, with no free parameters; a rigorous derivation is open. By the HardyRamanujan theorem (ω(s)∼log log s), this gives σc ∼(ln s)^(ln 2)/2, conrmed numerically to <1% error from x= 10^8 to 10^17. The growth of σc identies the arithmetic origin of an ε-type correction within ER; the implication for Hardy's E(x)-conjecture holds termwise via the Möbius shell expansion only in the regime ε>1/4 and remains open below.
Author: Wilhelmsen, Arno
Language: English
Subfield: Algebra and Number Theory
Field: Mathematics
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W7160606547
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