Average $r$-rank Artin Conjecture

Abstract

Let $\Gamma\subset\mathbb{Q}^*$ be a finitely generated subgroup and let $p$ be a prime such that the reduction group $\Gamma_p$ is a well defined subgroup of the multiplicative group $\mathbb{F}_p^*$. We prove an asymptotic formula for the average of the number of primes $p\le x$ for which the index $[\mathbb{F}_p^*:\Gamma_p]=m$. The average is performed over all finitely generated subgroups $\Gamma=\langle a_1,\dots,a_r \rangle\subset\mathbb{Q}^*$, with $a_i\in\mathbb{Z}$ and $a_i\le T_i$ with a range of uniformity: $T_i>\exp(4(\log x \log\log x)^{\frac{1}{2}})$ for every $i=1,\dots,r$. We also prove an asymptotic formula for the mean square of the error terms in the asymptotic formula with a similar range of uniformity. The case of rank $1$ and $m=1$ corresponds to the classical Artin conjecture for primitive roots and has already been considered by Stephens in 1969.