TITLE: Does the series $\sum_{n=2}^{\infty}{\frac{\sin(n^3)}{\ln(n)}}$ converge?
QUESTION [5 upvotes]: Do you have any idea if the series $\sum_{n=2}^{\infty}{\frac{\sin(n^3)}{\ln(n)}}$ converges? I am totally lost!

REPLY [2 votes]: The series is divergent.
We adopt the result and extend the idea of this posting by Terry Tao: https://mathoverflow.net/questions/201250/is-sum-k-1n-sink2-bounded-by-a-constant-m?sfb=2
The result of the posting is $\sum_{n\leq x} \sin n^3$ is unbounded.
By the unboundedness of $\sum_{n\leq x} \sin n^3$, the abscissa of convergence  $\sigma_c$
of $\sum (\sin n^3)/n^s$ satisfies $\sigma_c\geq 0$. If we assume that the series is convergent, then we have the convergence of the Dirichlet series $\sum (\sin n^3)/n^s$ for $\Re(s)>0$. Thus, $\sigma_c=0$ and we have
$$
\limsup_{x\rightarrow\infty} \frac{\log |\sum_{n\leq x} \sin n^3|}{\log x} =0.
$$
Hence, if the series is convergent, then for any $\epsilon>0$ and $x\geq 1$, there is $C_{\epsilon}>0$ such that
$$
|\sum_{n\leq x} \sin n^3|\leq C_{\epsilon} x^{\epsilon}. \ \ (1)
$$
We will obtain a contradiction to this statement.
By this posting by David Speyer (based on Weil's inequality): Convergence of $\sum \limits_{n=1}^{\infty}\sin(n^k)/n$
we have an absolute constant $\delta>0$ such that the following hold.
Define $X_1=\sin((k+1)^3)$, $\ldots$, $X_h=\sin((k+h)^3)$ be random variables (as empirical distributions with corresponding outputs for $k=1,\ldots n$ with probability $1/n$ each). We have
$$
EX_i=O(n^{-\delta}), \ \text{Var}(X_i)=\frac12 + O(n^{-\delta}),
$$
and
$$
\text{Var}\sum_{i\leq h} X_i = \frac h2 + O(hn^{-\delta})+2\sum_{1\leq i<j\leq h} \text{Cov}(X_i,X_j)$$
$$
=\frac h2+O(hn^{-\delta})+O(h^2 n^{-\delta}).$$
Let $h=\lceil n^{\delta/2}\rceil$. Assuming all length $h$ partial sums are $O(h^{1/4})$, we have by comparing two estimates of $\text{Var}\sum_i X_i$,
$$
\frac h2 + O(h^2 n^{-\delta}) = O(h^{1/2}).
$$
These estimates do not agree as $n\rightarrow\infty$. Thus, there is an absolute constant $c>0$ and some length $h$ partial sum of $\sin k^3$ which is $\geq c h^{1/4}$. That is, there is $k\leq n$ such that
$$
|\sum_{i\leq h} \sin (k+i)^3| \geq c h^{1/4}\geq c n^{\delta/8}.
$$
Since $\sum_{i\leq h} \sin (k+i)^3 = \sum_{j\leq k+h} \sin j^3 - \sum_{j\leq k} \sin j^3$, one of the two partial sums' absolute value on the RHS must satisfy $\geq (c/2) n^{\delta/8}$.
If we take $\epsilon=\delta/9$ in (1), then we have a contradiction.
Therefore, the series is divergent.
Remark
We may explicitly write $\delta$ in terms of the irrationality measure of $\pi$.