Ramanujan sums as supercharacters

Abstract

The theory of supercharacters, recently developed by Diaconis-Isaacs and André, is used to derive the fundamental algebraic properties of Ramanujan sums. This machinery frequently yields one-line proofs of difficult identities and provides many novel formulas. In addition to exhibiting a new application of supercharacter theory, this article also serves as a blueprint for future work since some of the abstract results we develop are applicable in much greater generality.