On two conjectures concerning squarefree numbers in arithmetic progressions

Abstract: We prove upper bounds for the error term of the distribution of squarefree numbers up to $X$ in arithmetic progressions modulo $q$ making progress towards two well-known conjectures concerning this distribution and improving upon earlier results by Hooley. We make use of recent estimates for short exponential sums by Bourgain-Garaev and for exponential sums twisted by the M\"obius function by Bourgain and Fouvry-Kowalski-Michel.