Maths Olympiad Prep

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Number theory Difficulty 5.5 AIME, harder Find the answer

Example 1 Find the Möbius transform of the Liouville function λ(n)\lambda(n).

A number or a short expression. Spacing and $ signs are ignored.

Solution

Solve dεeλ(d)=(1)0+(1)1++(1)α={1,2α,0,2α.\text{Solve } \begin{aligned} \sum_{d \mid \varepsilon_{e}} \lambda(d) & =(-1)^{0}+(-1)^{1}+\cdots+(-1)^{\alpha} \\ & =\left\{\begin{array}{ll} 1, & 2 \mid \alpha, \\ 0, & 2 \nmid \alpha . \end{array}\right. \end{aligned}

From this and the fact that λ(n)\lambda(n) is a multiplicative function, we get
dnλ(d)={1,n is a perfect square, 0, otherwise. \sum_{d \mid n} \lambda(d)=\left\{\begin{array}{ll} 1, & n \text{ is a perfect square, } \\ 0, & \text{ otherwise. } \end{array}\right.

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Source: NuminaMath-1.5, licensed Apache-2.0. Statement and solution reproduced as published; topic and difficulty added by this site.