On the correlations of $n^\alpha$ mod 1

Abstract

A well known result in the theory of uniform distribution modulo one (which goes back to Fej\'er and Csillag) states that the fractional parts $\{n^\alpha\}$ of the sequence $(n^\alpha)_{n\ge1}$ are uniformly distributed in the unit interval whenever $\alpha>0$ is not an integer. For sharpening this knowledge to local statistics, the $k$-level correlation functions of the sequence $(\{n^\alpha\})_{n\geq1}$ are of fundamental importance. We prove that for each $k\ge2,$ the $k$-level correlation function $R_k$ is Poissonian for almost every $\alpha>4k^2-4k-1$.