Bounded Exponential Sums with Multiplicative Coefficients

Abstract: We investigate when the exponential sum $\sum_{n \leq x}f(n)e^{2 \pi i n \alpha}$ is bounded, for a multiplicative function $f$ and $\alpha \in \mathbb{R}$. We show that under certain natural assumptions, this exponential sum is bounded only when $f$ closely resembles a periodic function. For completely multiplicative functions or those taking only finitely many values, we obtain sharper classification results, including a full classification (up to a measure-zero set of $\alpha$) in the completely multiplicative case.