Averages of the Möbius function on shifted primes

It is a folklore conjecture that the Möbius function exhibits cancellation on shifted primes; that is, $\sum_{p\le X}μ(p+h) \ = \ o(π(X))$ as $X\to\infty$ for any fixed shift $h>0$. This appears in print at least since Hildebrand in 1989. We prove the conjecture on average for shifts $h\le H$, provided $\log H/\log\log X\to\infty$. We also obtain results for shifts of prime $k$-tuples, and for higher correlations of Möbius with von Mangoldt and divisor functions. Our argument combines sieve methods with a refinement of Matomäki, Radziwiłł, and Tao's work on an averaged form of Chowla's conjecture.

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