Obius Function Research Articles

Representing polynomial of ST-CONNECTIVITY

We show that the coefficients of the representing polynomial of any monotone Boolean function are the values of the M\"obius function of an atomistic lattice related to this function. Using this we determine the representing polynomial of any Boolean function corresponding to a ST-CONNECTIVITY problem in acyclic quivers (directed acyclic multigraphs). Only monomials corresponding to unions of paths have non-zero coefficients which are $(-1)^D$ where $D$ is an easily computable function of the quiver corresponding to the monomial (it is the number of plane regions in the case of planar graphs). We determine that the number of monomials with non-zero coefficients for the two-dimensional $n \times n$ grid connectivity problem is $2^{\Omega(n^2)}$.

An application of the Goulden–Jackson cluster theorem

Let A be an alphabet and let F be a set of words with letters in A. We show that the sum of all words with letters in A with no consecutive subwords in F, as a formal power series in noncommuting variables, is the reciprocal of a series with all coefficients 0, 1 or -1. We also explain how this result is related to a result of Curtis Greene on lattices with M\"obius function 0, 1, or -1.

Wave localization in number-theoretic landscapes

We investigate the localization of waves in aperiodic structures that manifest the characteristic multiscale complexity of certain arithmetic functions with a central role in number theory. In particular, we study the eigenspectra and wave localization properties of tight-binding Schr\"{o}dinger equation models with on-site potentials distributed according to the Liouville function $\lambda(n)$, the M\"{o}bius function $\mu(n)$, and the Legendre sequence of quadratic residues modulo a prime (QRs). We employ Multifractal Detrended Fluctuation Analysis (MDFA) and establish the multifractal scaling properties of the energy spectra in these systems. Moreover, by systematically analyzing the spatial eigenmodes and their level spacing distributions, we show the absence of level repulsion with broadband localization across the entire energy spectra. Our study introduces deterministic aperiodic systems whose eigenmodes are all strongly localized in realistic finite one-dimensional systems and provides opportunities for novel quantum and classical devices of particular importance to cold-atom experiments in engineered speckle potentials and enhanced light-matter interactions.

Moments de la fonction Delta de Hooley associée à un caractère

Let $f$ be an arithmetic function, $V\geqslant 1$ a real number and $$\Delta_V(n,f) := \sup\limits_{\substack{u \in \mathbb{R}\\ v \in [0,V]}}{\Big|\sum\limits_{\substack{d\mid n \\ {\rm e}^{u}<d\leqslant {\rm e}^{u+v}}}{f(d)}\Big|}{\rm .}$$ In a paper published in 2012, La Bret\`eche and Tenenbaum investigated weighted moments of $\Delta_1(n,f)$ where $f$ is a non principal real Dirichlet character, or the M\"obius function. Answering a question of Hooley, we extend their results studying dependance in $V$ and including the case of complex characters.

The structure of logarithmically averaged correlations of multiplicative functions, with applications to the Chowla and Elliott conjectures

Let $g_0,\dots,g_k: {\bf N} \to {\bf D}$ be $1$-bounded multiplicative functions, and let $h_0,\dots,h_k \in {\bf Z}$ be shifts. We consider correlation sequences $f: {\bf N} \to {\bf Z}$ of the form $$ f(a):= \widetilde{\lim}_{m \to \infty} \frac{1}{\log \omega_m} \sum_{x_m/\omega_m \leq n \leq x_m} \frac{g_0(n+ah_0) \dots g_k(n+ah_k)}{n} $$ where $1 \leq \omega_m \leq x_m$ are numbers going to infinity as $m \to \infty$, and $\widetilde{\lim}$ is a generalised limit functional extending the usual limit functional. We show a structural theorem for these sequences, namely that these sequences $f$ are the uniform limit of periodic sequences $f_i$. Furthermore, if the multiplicative function $g_0 \dots g_k$ "weakly pretends" to be a Dirichlet character $\chi$, the periodic functions $f_i$ can be chosen to be $\chi$-isotypic in the sense that $f_i(ab) = f_i(a) \chi(b)$ whenever $b$ is coprime to the periods of $f_i$ and $\chi$, while if $g_0 \dots g_k$ does not weakly pretend to be any Dirichlet character, then $f$ must vanish identically. As a consequence, we obtain several new cases of the logarithmically averaged Elliott conjecture, including the logarithmically averaged Chowla conjecture for odd order correlations. We give a number of applications of these special cases, including the conjectured logarithmic density of all sign patterns of the Liouville function of length up to three, and of the M\"obius function of length up to four.

Generalized Fourier coefficients of multiplicative functions

We introduce and analyse a general class of not necessarily bounded multiplicative functions, examples of which include the function $n \mapsto \delta^{\omega (n)}$, where $\delta \neq 0$ and where $\omega$ counts the number of distinct prime factors of $n$, as well as the function $n \mapsto |\lambda_f(n)|$, where $\lambda_f(n)$ denotes the Fourier coefficients of a primitive holomorphic cusp form. For this class of functions we show that after applying a `$W$-trick' their elements become orthogonal to polynomial nilsequences. The resulting functions therefore have small uniformity norms of all orders by the Green--Tao--Ziegler inverse theorem, a consequence that will be used in a separate paper in order to asymptotically evaluate linear correlations of multiplicative functions from our class. Our result generalises work of Green and Tao on the M\"obius function.

Möbius disjointness for homogeneous dynamics

We prove Sarnak's M\"obius disjointness conjecture for all unipotent translations on homogeneous spaces of real connected Lie groups. Namely, we show that if $G$ is any such group, $\Gamma\subset G$ a lattice, and $u\in G$ an Ad-unipotent element, then for every $x\in\Gamma\backslash G$ and every continuous, bounded function $f$ on $\Gamma\backslash G$, the sequence $f(xu^{n})$ cannot correlate with the M\"obius function on average.

Two Posets of Noncrossing Partitions Coming From Undesired Parking Spaces

Considere las particiones sin cruces de un conjunto de n elementos que no usan el bloque {n - 1, n}, ni usan a la vez el bloque {n} y un bloque que contenga a 1 y n - 1. En este artículo estudiamos el subposet del retículo de particiones sin cruces inducido por estos elementos. Probamos que este retículo es supersoluble, y por lo tanto es lexicogríaficamente descascarable. También damos un modelo combinatorio de las bases NBB de este retículo y derivamos una fórmula explicita para el valor de su función de Möbius entre el elemento mínimo y el máximo. Este trabajo es motivado por un artículo reciente de M. Bruce, M. Dougherty, M. Hlavacek, R. Kudo, e I. Nicolas en el cual introducen un subposet del retículo de particiones sin cruces que es determinado por funciones de parqueo con ciertas entradas prohibidas. En particular, ellos conjeturan que el poset resultante siempre tiene un complejo de orden contráctil. En este artículo probamos esta conjetura, sumergiendo su poset en el nuestro y mostrando que esta inmersión hereda la descascarabilidad lexicográfica.

Cellular automata and finite groups

For a finite group $G$ and a finite set $A$, we study various algebraic aspects of cellular automata over the configuration space $A^G$. In this situation, the set $\text{CA}(G;A)$ of all cellular automata over $A^G$ is a finite monoid whose basic algebraic properties had remained unknown. First, we investigate the structure of the group of units $\text{ICA}(G;A)$ of $\text{CA}(G;A)$. We obtain a decomposition of $\text{ICA}(G;A)$ into a direct product of wreath products of groups that depends on the numbers $\alpha_{[H]}$ of periodic configurations for conjugacy classes $[H]$ of subgroups of $G$. We show how the numbers $\alpha_{[H]}$ may be computed using the M\"obius function of the subgroup lattice of $G$, and we use this to improve the lower bound recently found by Gao, Jackson and Seward on the number of aperiodic configurations of $A^G$. Furthermore, we study generating sets of $\text{CA}(G;A)$; in particular, we prove that $\text{CA}(G;A)$ cannot be generated by cellular automata with small memory set, and, when all subgroups of $G$ are normal, we determine the relative rank of $\text{ICA}(G;A)$ on $\text{CA}(G;A)$, i.e. the minimal size of a set $V \subseteq \text{CA}(G;A)$ such that $\text{CA}(G;A) = \langle \text{ICA}(G;A) \cup V \rangle$.

The Structure of the Consecutive Pattern Poset

The consecutive pattern poset is the infinite partially ordered set of all permutations where $\sigma\le\tau$ if $\tau$ has a subsequence of adjacent entries in the same relative order as the entries of $\sigma$. We study the structure of the intervals in this poset from topological, poset-theoretic, and enumerative perspectives. In particular, we prove that all intervals are rank-unimodal and strongly Sperner, and we characterize disconnected and shellable intervals. We also show that most intervals are not shellable and have M\"obius function equal to zero.

New recurrence relations and matrix equations for arithmetic functions generated by Lambert series

We consider relations between the pairs of sequences, $(f, g_f)$, generated by Lambert series expansions, $L_f(q) = \sum_{n \geq 1} f(n) q^n / (1-q^n)$, in $q$. In particular, we prove new forms of recurrence relations and matrix equations defining these sequences for all $n \in \mathbb{Z}^{+}$. The key ingredient to the proof of these results is given by the statement of Euler's pentagonal number theorem expanding the series for the infinite $q$-Pochhammer product, $(q; q)_{\infty}$, and for the first $n$ terms of the partial products, $(q; q)_n$, forming the denominators of the rational $n^{th}$ partial sums of $L_f(q)$. Examples of the new results given in the article include applications to the Euler phi function, $\phi(n)$, the M\obius function, $\mu(n)$, the sum of divisors functions, $\sigma_1(n)$ and $\sigma_{\alpha}(n)$, for $\alpha \geq 0$, and to Liouville's lambda function, $\lambda(n)$.

Multiplicative functions in short intervals

We introduce a general result relating short averages of a multiplicative function to long averages which are well understood. This result has several consequences. First, for the M\obius function we show that there are cancellations in the sum of $\mu(n)$ in almost all intervals of the form $[x, x + \psi(x)]$ with $\psi(x) \rightarrow \infty$ arbitrarily slowly. This goes beyond what was previously known conditionally on the Density Hypothesis or the stronger Riemann Hypothesis. Second, we settle the long-standing conjecture on the existence of $x^{\epsilon}$-smooth numbers in intervals of the form $[x, x + c(\varepsilon) \sqrt{x}]$, recovering unconditionally a conditional (on the Riemann Hypothesis) result of Soundararajan. Third, we show that the mean-value of $\lambda(n)\lambda(n+1)$, with $\lambda(n)$ Liouville's function, is non-trivially bounded in absolute value by $1 - \delta$ for some $\delta > 0$. This settles an old folklore conjecture and constitutes progress towards Chowla's conjecture. Fourth, we show that a (general) real-valued multiplicative function $f$ has a positive proportion of sign changes if and only if $f$ is negative on at least one integer and non-zero on a positive proportion of the integers. This improves on many previous works, and is new already in the case of the M\obius function. We also obtain some additional results on smooth numbers in almost all intervals, and sign changes of multiplicative functions in all intervals of square-root length.

Squarefree polynomials and Möbius values in short intervals and arithmetic progressions

We calculate the mean and variance of sums of the M\"obius function and the indicator function of the squarefrees, in both short intervals and arithmetic progressions, in the context of the ring of polynomials over a finite field of $q$ elements, in the limit $q\to \infty$. We do this by relating the sums in question to certain matrix integrals over the unitary group, using recent equidistribution results due to N. Katz, and then by evaluating these integrals. In many cases our results mirror what is either known or conjectured for the corresponding problems involving sums over the integers, which have a long history. In some cases there are subtle and surprising differences. The ranges over which our results hold is significantly greater than those established for the corresponding problems in the number field setting.

Arithmetic Correlations Over Large Finite Fields

The auto-correlations of arithmetic functions, such as the von Mangoldt function, the M\"obius function and the divisor function, are the subject of classical problems in analytic number theory. The function field analogues of these problems have recently been resolved in the limit of large finite field size $q$. However, in this limit the correlations disappear: the arithmetic functions become uncorrelated. We compute averages of terms of lower order in $q$ which detect correlations. Our results show that there is considerable cancellation in the averaging and have implications for the rate at which correlations disappear when $q \rightarrow\infty$; in particular one cannot expect remainder terms that are of the order of the square-root of the main term in this context.

The Rees product of posets

We determine how the flag f-vector of any graded poset changes under the Rees product with the chain, and more generally, any t-ary tree. As a corollary, the M\"obius function of the Rees product of any graded poset with the chain, and more generally, the t-ary tree, is exactly the same as the Rees product of its dual with the chain, respectively, t-ary chain. We then study enumerative and homological properties of the Rees product of the cubical lattice with the chain. We give a bijective proof that the M\"obius function of this poset can be expressed as n times a signed derangement number. From this we derive a new bijective proof of Jonsson's result that the M\"obius function of the Rees product of the Boolean algebra with the chain is given by a derangement number. Using poset homology techniques we find an explicit basis for the reduced homology and determine a representation for the reduced homology of the order complex of the Rees product of the cubical lattice with the chain over the symmetric group.

Maximizing Möbius functions on subsets of Boolean algebras

Let F be a family of subsets of an n-set, considered as a subposet of the Boolean algebra B n . Adjoin a minimum 0̂ and maximum 1̂ if necessary to form F ̂ . Let μ( F ) denote the value of the M:obius function μ(0̂,1̂) in F ̂ . We compute the maximum value of |μ( F )| as F ranges over three types of families in B n : lower order ideals, intervals of rank levels, and arbitrary rank-selections. The maxima are obtained by taking the lower half, the middle third, and every other rank of B n , respectively. The maximum for the first case was previously found by Eckhoff (1980) and Scheid (1979). It allows us to answer a question raised by Füredi based on his joint work with Chung, Graham and Seymour (1988). The third maximum was also previously given by Niven (1968) and de Bruijn (1970). Finally, we consider lower order ideal case for the lattice of subspaces of a vector space, the maximum being achieved by taking the whole poset.

On lattices with M:obius function ±1, 0

We provide simple arguments of a geometric nature to explain why the Mobius functions of certain lattices take only the values ?1, 0, 1.