On the mean value of the magnitude of an exponential sum involving the divisor function

Abstract

We obtain an asymptotic formula for the L^1 norm of the exponential sum $M(\alpha) = \sum_{n\le X}\tau(n)e(n\alpha)$ where $\tau(n) = \sum_{d|n} 1$ is the divisor function. In particular, we show that it is $\sim C\sqrt{X}\log X$ with $C = \frac{18}{\pi^3} - \frac{12\log 2}{\pi^3} - \frac{1}{2\pi}\approx 0.153\dots$.