Smooth numbers in arithmetic progressions to large moduli

Abstract

We show that smooth numbers are equidistributed in arithmetic progressions to moduli of size $x^{66/107-o(1)}$. This overcomes a longstanding barrier of $x^{3/5-o(1)}$ present in previous works of Bombieri-Friedlander-Iwaniec, Fouvry-Tenenbaum, Drappeau, and Maynard. We build on Drappeau's variation of the dispersion method and on exponential sum manipulations of Maynard, ultimately relying on optimized Deshouillers-Iwaniec type estimates for sums of Kloosterman sums.

51 pages. v2: Improved main result using an adjusted arrangement of exponential sums. v3: Incorporates referees' comments (to appear in Compos. Math.)