Bilinear sums with $GL(2)$ coefficients and the exponent of distribution of $d_3$

Abstract

We obtain the exponent of distribution $1/2+1/30$ for the ternary divisor function $d_3$ to square-free and prime power moduli, improving the previous results of Fouvry--Kowalski--Michel, Heath-Brown, and Friedlander--Iwaniec. The key input is certain estimates on bilinear sums with $GL(2)$ coefficients obtained using the delta symbol approach.