9 - Strips under the Microscope

Summary

The solution of Bohr’s problem (see Chapter 4) implies that for every Dirichlet series in \mathcal{H}_\infty, the sum ∑ |a_n| n^(-s) is finite for every Re s > 1/2, and we ask if we can in fact get to Re s=1/2. This is addressed by considering, for Dirichlet polynomials, the quotient between ∑ | a_n | and the norm (in \mathcal{H}_\infty) of the polynomial. We define S(x) as the supremum over all Dirichlet polynomials of length x ≥ 2 of these quotients. It is shown that S(x)=exp(- (1/\sqrt{2} + o(1)) (log n loglog n)^(1/2)) as x goes to ∞. This is reformulated in terms of the Sidon constant of the monomials as characters of the infinite-dimensional polydisc. The proof uses the hypercontractive Bohnenblust-Hille inequality and a fine decomposition of the natural numbers as those having ‘big’ and ‘small’ prime factors. Also, a version for homegeneous Dirichlet series is given.