On the Chowla and twin primes conjectures over $\mathbb F_q[T]$

Abstract

Using geometric methods, we improve on the function field version of the Burgess bound and show that, when restricted to certain special subspaces, the Möbius function over $\mathbb {F}_q[T]$ can be mimicked by Dirichlet characters. Combining these, we obtain a level of distribution close to $1$ for the Möbius function in arithmetic progressions and resolve Chowla’s $k$-point correlation conjecture with large uniformity in the shifts. Using a function field variant of a result by Fouvry-Michel on exponential sums involving the Möbius function, we obtain a level of distribution beyond $1/2$ for irreducible polynomials, and establish the twin prime conjecture in a quantitative form. All these results hold for finite fields satisfying a simple condition.