On a Certain Kind of Generalized Number-Theoretical Möbius Function Tom C. Brown,£ Leetsch C. Hsu,† Jun Wang† and Peter Jau-Shyong Shiue‡ Citation data: T.C. Brown, C. Hsu Leetsch, Jun Wang, and Peter J.-S. Shiue, On a certain kind of generalized number-theoretical Moebius function, Math. Scientist 25 (2000), 72–77. Abstract The classical Möbius function appears in many places in number theory and in combinatorial the- ory. Several different generalizations of this function have been studied. We wish to bring to the attention of a wider audience a particular generalization which has some attractive applications. We give some new examples and applications, and mention some known results. Keywords: Generalized Möbius functions; arithmetical functions; Möbius-type functions; multiplica- tive functions AMS 2000 Subject Classification: Primary 11A25; 05A10 Secondary 11B75; 20K99 This paper is dedicated to the memory of Professor Gian-Carlo Rota 1 Introduction We define a generalized Möbius function ma for each complex number a. (When a = 1, m1 is the classical Möbius function.) We show that the set of functions ma forms an Abelian group with respect to the Dirichlet product, and then give a number of examples and applications, including a generalized Möbius inversion formula and a generalized Euler function. Special cases of the generalized Möbius functions studied here have been used in [6–8]. For other generalizations see [1,5]. For interesting survey articles, see [2,3, 11]. £Department of Mathematics and Statistics, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, BC Canada V5A 1S6. [email protected]. †Department of Mathematics, Dalian University of Technology, Dalian 116024, China. ‡Department of Mathematical Sciences, University of Nevada, Las Vegas, NV 89154-4020, USA. 1 Let us recall that the classical Möbius function m(n) is defined for positive integers n in the following way: m(1) = 1. If n is not square free then m(n) = 0. If n is square free and r is the number of distinct primes dividing n, then m(n) = ( 1)r [9]. For any integer r, a Möbius function of order r may be defined by using binomial coefficients, namely for each positive integer n, r ( ) = ( )¶p(n) mr n ∏ ( ) 1 pjn ¶p n where p runs through all the prime divisors of n, and ¶p(n) = ordpn denotes the highest power k of p k such that p divides n. Obviously m1(n) = m(n). For more details, see [7]. We now define a generalized Möbius function ma for each complex number a, by setting a ( ) = ( )¶p(n) ma n ∏ ( ) 1 pjn ¶p n At the end of the paper, we mention a particularly interesting application of the case where a is real. 2 Group-theoretic properties Recall that the classical Möbius function is multiplicative; i.e., if m and n are relatively prime, then m(mn) = m(m)m(n). It is easily seen that the definition of ma implies that this property extends to the Möbius function of order a, giving us the following lemma. Lemma 1. For each complex number a, ma is a multiplicative function. Next, we recall the definition of the Dirichlet product (or convolution) of two arithmetic functions f and g (cf. [1,4]). Definition 1. Given two arithmetic functions f and g, the Dirichlet (convolution) product f £ g is again an arithmetic function which is defined by n n ( f £ g)(n) = ∑ f (d)g = ∑ f g(d); djn d djn d where the summations are taken over all positive divisors d of n. Evidently, the product is commutative: f £ g = g £ f . Using a little algebra one easily shows that the following associative law also holds: ( f £ g) £ h = f £ (g £ h). That is, for all positive integers n, (( f £ g) £ h)(n) = ( f £ (g £ h))(n). Moreover, the convolution f £ g is a multiplicative function whenever f and g are multiplicative functions. Definition 2. Let M = fma : a 2 Cg where C denotes the set of complex numbers. The set M may be called the set of generalized Möbius functions of complex order. 2 Lemma 2. For any given numbers a and b in C, we have £ = ma mb ma+b Proof. It is required to show that for all positive integers n, ( £ )( ) = ( ) n = ( ): ma mb n ∑ ma d mb ma+b n djn d £ Since ma and mb are multiplicative (by Lemma1), the Dirichlet product ma mb is also multiplicative. Thus, it suffices to consider the case n = pk, where p is prime and k is a positive integer. We easily find k k p (m £ m )(pk) = m (d)m = m (pi)m (pk i) a b ∑ a b d ∑ a b djpk i=0 k a b = ( 1)i ( 1)k i ∑ i k i i=0 + k a b k = ( 1) = m + (p ); k a b since the relation (1 + x)a (1 + x)b = (1 + x)a+b implies + k a b = a b : ∑ k i=0 i k i Notice that m0 is the Möbius function of order zero that gives the values ( 0 ( ) 1 n = 1; m (n) = ( 1)¶p n = 0 ∏ ( ) > : pjn ¶p n 0 n 1 Let us denote m0 by d. Since from Lemma2 we have ma £ d = d £ ma = ma for all a, we call it the identity element with respect to the Dirichlet product operation £. We are now ready to show that M is an Abelian group. Theorem 1. (M;£) is an Abelian group with identity element d = m0. Proof. By Lemma2 we see that M is closed with respect to the operation £. Moreover, we also have £ = £ ( ; 2 C); ma mb mb ma a b ( £ ) £ = £ ( £ )( ; ; 2 C); ma mb mg ma mb mg a b g ma £ d = d £ ma = ma ma £ m a = m a £ ma = d (a 2 C); Thus, the theorem is proved. 3 Of course, if G is any additive subgroup of C, then MG = fma : a 2 Gg is a subgroup of M. 3 Corollaries, examples and applications Corollary 1. (Generalized Möbius inversion formulae).) For all a 2 C and arithmetic functions f ;g, " # " # 8 2 N ( ) = n ( ) , 8 2 N ( ) = n ( ) : n f n ∑ ma g d n g n ∑ m a f d djn d djn d Proof. In fact, this is equivalent to the statement f = ma £ g , g = m a £ f ; which follows from f = ma £ g , m a £ f = m a £ ma £ g = d £ g = g: Evidently, Corollary1 with a = 1 implies the classical Möbius inversion formulae ( f = m £g , g = m 1 £ f ), since m1 = m and m 1 1: 1 (¶ (n))! ( ) = ( )¶p(n) = p = : m 1 n ∏ ( ) 1 ∏ ( ( )) 1 pjn ¶p n pjn ¶p n ! Note here that the Möbius m-function and m 1 1 are inverses of each other under convolution. Corollary 2. For all n 2 N and a 2 C, ( ) = ( ): ∑ ma d ma 1 n djn This is equivalent to the statement (m 1 £ ma )(n) = ma 1(n). Note that the case a = 1 gives the classical identity of Gauss ( ) = ( ) = ( ): ∑ m d m0 n d n djn Corollary 3. Let f be a completely multiplicative function such that f (mn) = f (n) f (m) for all positive integers m and n, and let r be a positive integer. Then the r-times convolution of mr f with f satisfies (mr f ) £ f £ f £ ¡¡¡ £ f = m0 f ; where (ma f )(n) = ma (n) f (n). This follows easily form Corollary2 and induction on r. Indeed we have (( ) £ )( ) = ( ) ( ) n = ( ) ( ) = ( )( ): mr f f n ∑ mr d f d f f n ∑ mr d mr 1 f n djn d djn 4 Moreover, it may be of interest to note that ( ) = ( £ )( ) = = ( ); m 2 n m 1 m 1 n ∑1 t n djn where t(n) denotes the number of positive divisors of n. Thus, t = m 2. Consequently, from m 2 £ m1 = m 1 and m 2 £ m2 = m0, we may obtain the identities ( ) n = ( ) n = ( ): ∑t d m 1 and ∑t d m2 d n djn d djn d Example 1. Let sr(n) denote the sum of the rth powers of the divisors of n. The well-known identity n nr = m(d)s ∑ r d r can be proved very simply in the following way. Let ir(n) = n . Then, since m 1 1, we have ir £ m 1 = sr, and hence r (m £ sr)(n) = (m £ ir £ m 1)(n) = (ir £ m £ m 1)(n) = (ir £ d)(n) = ir(n) = n : Example 2. Euler’s j-function may be written as j = i1 £ m1. Moreover, using t = m 2 we can easily prove the identity n s(n) = ∑j(d)t : djn d In fact, these statements follow easily from the relations ( ) = n = ( £ )( ) j n ∑dm i1 m1 n djn d and j £ t = (i1 £ m1) £ m 2 = i1 £ m 1 = s (see Example1). Example 3. Fix a positive integer r 1, and define jr = i1 £ mr. Then, if n is ‘r-powerful’, that is, ¶p(n) r for every prime divisor p of n, we have r ( ) = 1 : jr n n∏ 1 pjn p This may be verified as follows: ( ) r j r ( ) = n = mr d = r 1 = 1 : jr n ∑dmr n∑ n∏ ∑ n∏ 1 djn d djn d pjn j=0 j p pjn p Note that, if r = 1, then j1 = j is the classical Euler function. Thus, jr may be called the generalized Euler function of order r. This function has a similar meaning to that of j, in that fr counts the number of integers a, 1 a n, such that a is ‘rth-degree prime to n’.